Businessman Ted Evans was stunned to receive a phone call from US investigators telling him the vintage Rolls Royce he had just sold may have been used in a plot to smuggle drugs.

It turned out that the police had been mistaken but that bizarre telephone call in the early 1970s served as the inspiration for the Haworth man’s first published novel.

The crime thriller is called II PY after the chassis number of his latest Rolls, a 1933 Phantom II Sedanca De Ville. And the car itself will be on show at his first book signing in Bradford next month.

“The book started off as an idea when I had this old vintage Rolls Royce many years ago,” said Mr Evans, of Belle Isle Road.

“When I sold it, I got a phone call from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in America, asking what I had done with the car, how long I had had it and its particulars.

“Then I got a phone call from Scotland Yard. They were interested because they believed the car, or a similar car, had been used for drug smuggling. As it turned out, there was no truth in the matter and I have no idea how it all ended up, but it gave me the idea for my book.”

Married Mr Evans, who has been a magistrate in Bradford district for about 20 years, spent six months writing the crime novel.

It tells the story of wealthy Haworth businessman, Robert Conway, who flies to New York to fulfil the dream of a lifetime – to buy the vintage Rolls Royce.

His dream turns into a nightmare when he discovers the car is the confiscated property of a convicted drug dealer named John Maitland, who will stop at nothing to get it back.

All the action in the novel is based on car enthusiast Mr Evans’s classic Rolls Royce, believed to be worth between £50,000 and £85,000.