POLICE are investigating the possibility that a pub landlord who disappeared at the same time as his customers’ £29,000 Christmas fund may have jumped from a cross Channel ferry.

Malcolm Levesconte went missing from the Royal Oak at Shrewton near Salisbury on December 9 and Wiltshire Police say he boarded a ferry to St Malo but they cannot be sure he arrived in France.

"We continue to treat Malcolm Levesconte's disappearance as a missing person inquiry but at this stage we do have to accept there is a possibility that he did not make it to France and may have taken his own life by jumping into the sea,” said Det Sgt Mike Standing.

"I would like to appeal to anyone who has information to come and speak to us. His family are facing the terrible prospect that he may have committed suicide.”

An appeal launched to help replace the missing savings has already netted around £10,000.

Anyone with information about Mr Levesconte’s whereabouts can call 101.