Police said last night they were closing in on a missing 14-year-old girl who disappeared with a 46-year-old family friend last week.

Detectives want to find Stacey Champ, from Gillingham, Kent, before she spends another night with David Milner.

The search for the pair was intensified after it was revealed that they were spotted at a hotel in the north of England, posing as husband and wife under the names of Mr and Mrs Thomas.

A woman who saw the pair at the Blackpool hotel, before they left pulling a large black suitcase, said Stacey was "giggling" and seemed "quite lovestruck".

Airports and ports remained on high alert last night amid fears that Milner and the teenager - who does not hold her own passport - could try to flee the country.

Friends of Stacey, a pupil at Upbury Manor School in Gillingham, have suggested they might attempt to leave Britain, but police, who are "extremely concerned" for her, believe they are still in the country.

Last night, Inspector Richard Watson, of Kent Police, revealed that Milner, who is from Stacey's home town, bought a car on the outskirts of Blackpool on Friday afternoon.

Speaking at Rochester Police Station, Insp Watson said officers were desperate to trace the red VW Golf purchased from a private dealer for £300.

After arriving at the dealer's by taxi, the pair continued to use the alias Mr and Mrs Thomas, and said that they were on holiday.

Insp Watson appealed for help in the search for the pair and the car, which had the registration J804 LLD.

Insp Watson said: "The net is closing in. Each time we get a piece of information, it is closer to them".

Stacey was last seen by her family on Thursday morning. Milner, who works for telephone engineering firm Beach Communications, had been a family friend for two years. He has withdrawn more than £1,000 from his bank account.

The pair stayed in a double room at The Central Hotel, in the heart of Blackpool's tourist centre, on Thursday and Friday night but left at about 12.30pm on Saturday.

Julie Barton, who saw them in Blackpool, said: "They introduced themselves as Stacey and Dave. They said they had been married for two years.

"She said she was 22 and Dave said he was 37. She struck me as being quite immature for 22. She was holding his hand and giggling and she seemed quite lovestruck.

"But alarm bells did not ring. You take people at face value."

A hotel cleaner, who would give her name only as Lena, said Stacey looked older than 14. "They just seemed to be another ordinary couple and I didn't notice any great age difference.

"I served them breakfast on the Friday and they seemed absolutely fine. She did not look like she was being held against her will or anything like that."

On Saturday, Stacey's mother, Angela, made an emotional public appeal for her daughter to return home.

Fighting back tears at a Press conference, Mrs Champ, 33, said: "Stacey please just come home You are not in any trouble.

"I love and I miss you. Max (the family cat) is missing you like hell. Just let me know that you are OK."

Police have also established that Stacey was in Newbury, Berkshire, on Thursday, and it believed that the missing couple went to Bristol before making their way to Blackpool.

Police have already recovered a white Escort van, thought to belong to Milner, at Temple Meads railway station in Bristol, where it is thought to have been since Thursday.

Police are now carrying out forensic analysis of the van, discovered by attendants in the long stay car park.

Milner is slim, 5ft 8ins tall, and has short dark hair with a "5 o'clock shadow". He wears black-rimmed metal glasses and has a Manchester accent.

Stacey is 5ft 3in, has long light brown hair with blonde streaks and was wearing blue jeans, white Airtech trainers and a blue baseball cap - though she is thought to have spare clothes