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A woman pulled over for driving a stolen high-performance sports car told police she needed the vehicle to ferry her three young nephews to school.
Less than two hours earlier the car was involved in the theft of $40 of fuel from a petrol station, said police.
Officers were surprised to find the woman, 31, driving her 24-year-old boyfriend with three children squeezed into the small back seat as they travelled along Mokoia Rd on Auckland's North Shore at 8.30am on Wednesday.
They were looking for the distinctive red 1991 Mitsubishi GTO because less than two hours earlier, a service station attendant at Shell in Glenfield Rd reported its driver had driven off without paying for petrol.
The car's owner, Irish-born Auckland IT consultant Gus O'Reilly, said it was the second time in six months the car had been stolen.
The Mitsubishi was locked both times it was stolen. Mr O'Reilly said he planned to downgrade to a less desirable "nana" car. "I'm more or less going to sell it because I'm just tired of it getting stolen."
The North Shore officer in charge of Mr O'Reilly's case, Senior Sergeant Rod Fraser, said two primary school children aged about 10 and 11 found in the car were taken to school by police.
Another boy, aged about 14, walked to school.
Mr Fraser said the woman caught driving the car told police: "My plan was to take the car home, pick up the boy and my three nephews and make sure the boys got to school. I was going to leave the car where I found it."
She has been charged with stealing a car and about $40 of petrol.
Her partner was charged with unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle.
The pair are to appear in the North Shore District Court on Monday.
