Madeleine McCann suspect's van searched as German police hunt for fresh evidence

Brueckner, who has constantly denied the allegations linking him to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is believed to have had a white Mercedes van in Portugal at the time the tot was abducted in 2007.

However, it is not clear if the two vehicles are one and the same.

There are hopes from the investigators that it could still contain DNA or crucial clues. However, an employee at the garage which took the van when Brueckner was finished with it said: "We cleaned it and repaired it but it wouldn’t have been wiped of all DNA. There could still be hairs and other traces of anyone who was kept inside.

"Due to data protection issues we cannot give you exact dates or further details of the client."

A BKA source told The Sun: "We are onto this now and appreciate the tip. We are getting in touch with the Rosier garage today."

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “I know that the white Sprinter information has been passed on to the BKA."

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It is now thought Brueckner owned the vehicle at the time Inga Gehricke, who vanished in a forest in Saxony-Anhalt, in 2015. Gehricke, dubbed as the "German Maddie" went missing in 2007. She disappeared leaving almost no clues, sparking the largest missing person's search in German history.

The only clue was the sighting of a "white Sprinter van" driving down a track through woods at the exact time. The case however, remains open and he hasn’t been officially discounted.

At the time of her disappearance, Brueckner, 47, was living on and off at his derelict factory in Neuwegersleben, approximately 90 kilometres away.

Speaking about the van, a friend of Brueckner’s told the Sun: "He drove around Europe with it and even took a girlfriend to Portugal and Spain with it. I went in it a few times with him, even to the box factory, and he used it all the time to move his stolen goods around."

Brueckner bought a lot in Neuwegersleben in former East Germany in 2010 and is believed to have also lived in a trailer there.

A 2016 police search uncovered disturbing images and videos on memory cards in a Lidl plastic bag there beneath the corpse of one of his dogs. Clothing including swimwear in children’s sizes were also found.

The owner of the scrapyard, who did not want to be named, previously told The Sun on Sunday: "German law requires that you keep all records for at least 10 years. But the thing is, none of the police divisions came round to ask us anything, which you could say is surprising."

The trial continues in Germany.