A CAR that was living as a stray in a Basildon garden has been reunited with his owner after four years.

Cats Protection’s Basildon branch was called to help a cat living under bushes in the garden.

When volunteers trapped and scanned the cat this month, they found that Frank, aged 11, had been reported as missing in 2017 from Maidstone, 45 miles away.

It was only by tracking down his registered surgery after calls to vets in Maidstone and Basildon that they discovered that his owner had moved 18 months previously.

With only a surname to go on the Cats Protection team searched social media and launched an online campaign. They upped their game even further by calling local estate agents in an effort to find the owner’s new address.

Charlotte Boddy, Deputy Manager at the Chelmsford Adoption Centre, said: "It took a bit of detective work by the whole team, but we weren’t going to be beaten by the challenge. We were determined to get Frank home, wherever that might be. We just didn’t expect it to be across the other side of the country."

Frank was finally reunited with his family more than 260 miles away in Manchester.

Kayleigh Beadle, Frank's owner, said: "It wasn’t the news we expected after four years missing. Honestly, we thought he was gone for good, possibly passed away. So we were pretty shocked, to be honest. Both me and my eldest son were in floods of tears on the phone."