A POLICE team is to make a fresh search for a 55-year-old man exactly a month since he went missing.

Ian Richardson has not been seen since leaving his house in Bertha Street, Ferryhill, County Durham, on Monday, August 11.

He wished his daughter Gillian a happy 25th birthday before leaving for an interview at Spennymoor JobCentre.

But he never arrived and failed to return home. The reason for his disappearance and his whereabouts since then remain a mystery.

Detective Chief Inspector Colin Pearson, of Sedgefield Police, said: "We are very, very concerned for this guy, so I'm getting another search team together.

"We'll be re-checking various places and a couple of new ones. We know there are a couple of allotments next to his own he used to go to, but we don't know if he had a favourite place.

"We still believe he's alive and we've got nothing to think that anything suspicious has happened."

Mr Richardson is 5ft 6in, of average build, with dark brown, curly hair and brown eyes.

He has a tattoo of a peacock on his right arm and a bird in flight on the other.

At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing a dark blue shirt, dark blue trousers and a three-quarter length green coat.

He spent time on his late father's allotment at the rear of Cochrane Terrace, and his own two allotments at the rear of Magdalene Terrace. He sometimes had a drink in Ferryhill Station Working Men's Club.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on (01388) 814411.