A boy, aged eight, caused thousands of pounds worth of damage when he got behind the wheel of his father’s car and careered into three parked vehicles.

Daniel Hutchinson, of Auberson Road, Great Lever, took the car keys on Saturday morning while his father, Stephen, was in the back garden. He got into the £35,000 automatic blue BMW X5 car, and managed to slip the gear lever out of Park mode. The car rolled 250 yards down a hill.

But the youngster was unable to reach the brake pedal and lost control of the vehicle, hitting three parked cars before coming to a stop.

Daniel, a pupil at Plodder Lane Primary School in Farnworth, caused extensive damage to the cars and one of them has been described as a “write-off”.

His dad, Stephen, aged 43, said: “I had no idea what had happened until a neighbour came round to say she’d seen Daniel driving my car. I was in total disbelief. I went into the street and saw that he had crashed into some other cars.

”I have asked Daniel why he did this, but he won’t tell me anything. He’s really shaken up and knows he’s done something wrong. I’m very disappointed in him. He’s never done anything like this before.”

A neighbour called the police after seeing the crash, but Daniel was not arrested because of his age.

Mr Hutchinson, who is married to wife Lisa and has two other children, is now counting the cost of the accident.

He said: “The cars are all badly damaged and it will cost £7,000 just to repair mine. Luckily the neighbours have been really good and were more concerned about Daniel than their cars.

“It could have been much worse though, because Daniel couldn’t control the car at all or even reach the pedals. I’m relieved that he walked away without any injuries, because he could easily have been hurt.”

One of the damaged cars, a one-year-old Fiat Brava, was owned by teacher Diane Smith.

She said: “I was upstairs when I heard a loud crashing sound outside.

“I came to the door and saw the car had gone into my car and knocked it back into some bollards.

“The boy was jumping up and down on the driver’s seat. He must have been very frightened inside the car.

“It seemed that my car cushioned the blow of the other one. Had the other car crashed straight into the bollards, the young lad may not have been so lucky.

“I am relieved that the boy is safe and well, but I am sad that my car has been damaged like this as I have only had it 12 months.”

Police confirmed they had been informed of the incident and would be compiling a report, but it was unlikely any action would be taken.

*In June last year, Daniel and his younger sister Charlotte were featured in The Bolton News after they had helped tend to their mum Lisa when she suddenly found she was giving birth while having a bath.