A 27-year-old man who cut off his electronic monitoring device before fleeing an Alice Springs “facility” he was ordered to reside at with the help of a female “associate” who also removed her EMD and drove the getaway car, has been rearrested over the weekend following a massive search effort, NT Police said.

The man removed his monitoring device around 3:30pm Saturday, shortly before fleeing the unnamed “mandated facility” in a Toyota Prado driven by the “female associate”.

NT Police, which did not inform the public of the escape, formed an “arrest team” comprised of general duties officers and the dog operations unit, which was dispatched to Alice Springs to locate the man.

He was able to evade the police overnight Saturday, but some time on Sunday, Darwin traffic officers conducting patrols south of Katherine “received an automatic number plate recognition alert on the vehicle of interest”, which police said was travelling northbound toward Katherine.

It was not explained how the alert was generated.

Police said in a statement that tyre deflation devices were deployed and that “despite attempts to evade capture, the vehicle was successfully stopped and both the man and the female driver were arrested”.

“The female, also in breach of her bail conditions for cutting off her EMD, was taken into custody,” the statement said.

The 27-year-old man was charged with failing to obey the direction of a police officer, driving unlicensed, and driving with a prohibited drug in his body.

The female was charged with breach of bail. Both were to appear in Katherine local court on Monday.