A prankster who tried to hitch a lift home on the back plate of a Securicor van sparked a police chase.

The man clung to the back of the van as it sped along a busy road at 50mph followed by a police car.

The Securicor vehicle stopped and police questioned the man, who by this time was cold, terrified and farther from home than when he started.

The man's evening took a turn for the worse when he left a pub in Pevensey Bay and saw the van pulling away in the direction of his home.

But the joke backfired when the van sped through his village on to the A259 coast road.

Police said the terrified hitchhiker, who was in his early thirties, was gripping a safety rail at the back of the van.

The van crew realised he was there and called the police, thinking he was trying to get in.

The man was said to be a carpenter from the Westham area, near Pevensey.

PC Julian Taylor of Polegate traffic police was one of the officers in the chase.

PC Taylor said: "He had been hanging on for dear life for about five miles when we caught up with him.

"He looked very meek and mild when we spoke to him."

The hapless hitcher did finally make it home, though -in the back of a police car.

PC Taylor said: "He said he might be in trouble with his family when he got indoors."