A year ago, David Beckham's BMW X5 was stolen from his home in Madrid. The car was estimated at £70,000. Now his stolen car is used as an official government vehicle in Macedonia.

The former England football captain, 31, was lunching when it was pinched from an underground car park. But newspapers in Macedonia yesterday published photos of the Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska in the capital Skopje getting into a car believed to be the stolen 4x4.

Police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said: “Before it reached Macedonia, this vehicle had changed hands 20 times in Spain — so we have no proof that it belonged to Beckham.”

It is believed that professional car thieves started the high- performance vehicle possibly using high-tech software. The car is thought to have been shipped to Greece before being driven to Macedonia.

The Macedonian government began using the car as an official vehicle — as nobody came forward to claim it. Ms Jankulovska stated: “If Beckham asks for the vehicle back, then I will hand him the keys myself.”