THE HAGUE, July 4, 2008 (AFP) - A 10-year-old boy was given a fine Thursday for driving a large delivery truck on a public road in the Netherlands, police said Friday.

'Two officers on patrol saw the truck driving on a parallel road, and noticed that the driver clearly wasn't 18,' Tessel Horsman, a police spokeswoman in The Hague, told AFP.

'They pulled the truck over to check the identity of the driver, and discovered it was a 10-year-old boy.'

It transpired the child was driving the truck, 'a large one', on a public road in the southern town of Honselersdijk, with his father shouting instructions from the road.

'The fine was issued to the boy officially, but since he is under-aged his father will probably pay it,' said Horsman.