A GROUP of volunteers carried out a search of Crickhowell for missing Ben Caplan this morning.

Five volunteers, led by co-ordinators Dan Jones and Martin Roberts, split into two groups to hand out posters of Mr Caplan, 30, of Bond Street, Newport, who was last seen on December 7, to businesses and shops and search along the river bank towards Abergavenny.

The volunteers who saw the appeal on the ‘Help find Ben Caplan’ group page on the social networking site Facebook travelled from Blackwood, Newport, Caldicot and Cardiff to join the search after the page said a sighting of Mr Caplan, who works in circulation at the South Wales Argus, had been reported in the area.

Mr Roberts, 58, a retired bank manager from Newport, saw the appeal in the Argus and the call for people to carry out a search on the site over the weekend.

He said: “As a hill walker I have knowledge of the area and volunteered to help in searching the footpaths along the river, caravan parks and the lower part of Table Mountain.”

Argus employee, Owen Pearce, 43, of Cardiff, joined the search after seeing the appeal for volunteers on Facebook.

“It is good people are doing something. Where there is hope we have to cling onto that hope.”

“Doing nothing is not an option.”

Mr Jones, 22, of Ystrad Mynach, attended Nash College with Mr Caplan several years ago.

He said: “We want to get posters into shops and search the area for anything that might help to find Ben.”

Lorriane Baker, 34, of Llangattock, handed out around 20 posters in the town.