A 12-year-old boy who was arrested while attempting to drive alone across Australia filled the car up at an outback petrol station but avoided suspicion because he was six-feet-tall and looked like he was “maybe 19 or 20”.

The boy was eventually arrested some five hours later, about 800 miles from his home in the town of Kendall on the east coast. He had stolen his family’s car at 11am on Friday and was headed to the city of Perth on the west coast, a total journey of about 2,500 miles.

Vamshi Reddy, a petrol station manager in the outback town of Cobar, said the boy put £11 worth of petrol in the car on Saturday at about 6am but drove off without paying.

“When I saw him, he looked like a nice person who was maybe 19 or 20,” he said.

“When police told me he was 12 ... I was shocked.”

Police arrested the boy in the remote town of Broken Hill on Saturday at 11am after highway patrol officers spotted the car’s bumper bar dragging along the road.

Detective Inspector Kim Fehon said the boy’s parents were distressed and were “extremely relieved” to be reunited with him.