Photo: CTV

A well known and prolific criminal on Vancouver Island has been caught red-handed, actually, it's asleep at the wheel.

Nanaimo RCMP found their man fast asleep behind the wheel of a stolen red Chevrolet Aveo at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

According to RCMP, officers on general patrol came across the car, ran the plates and determined it was stolen.

34-year-old Jackson Filgate was arrested and a subsequent search turned up other suspected stolen items and a small amount of crystal meth.

"The officers have a lot of work ahead of them as they attempt to sort out where and from who the items were stolen," said Nanaimo RCMP spokesman Const. Gary O'Brien. "Many of the tools and items found have no identifying markers which makes it that more difficult to determine where they were stolen from."

-with files from CTV Vancouver Island