A SECURITY guard who sparked a police hunt after he disappeared while walking to work at a hotel and golf complex has been found safe and well.Police search teams, including divers, dog handlers and volunteers spent more than 30 hours searching country lanes, lakes and wooded areas in and around the Stoke-by-Nayland Golf Club, between Sudbury and Colchester, in a bid to find Wayne Beecham.

A SECURITY guard who sparked a police hunt after he disappeared while walking to work at a hotel and golf complex has been found safe and well.

Police search teams, including divers, dog handlers and volunteers spent more than 30 hours searching country lanes, lakes and wooded areas in and around the Stoke-by-Nayland Golf Club, between Sudbury and Colchester, in a bid to find Wayne Beecham.

The Suffolk police helicopter and members of Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue team were also drafted in for the search.

Last night police said Mr Beecham, 23, who has lived and worked at the complex as a security guard/night porter for the past two-weeks, had made contact with a family friend.

A police spokesman said: “The missing person, Wayne Beecham, has in fact made contact and been seen by a family friend in Colchester within the last hour or so and is alive and well. Therefore we are cancelling our appeals to try and trace him.”

Mr Beecham vanished on Wednesday night after leaving the Dalton House accommodation unit on the complex to make his way to work.

The walk should have taken just 10 minutes, through Plough Lane in Leavenheath, and via a shortcut through the golf course, but he never arrived at the hotel reception to start his 9pm shift.

Police and staff at the club were concerned for his safety because his disappearance was considered “completely out of character.”

His family, who are believed to live in the Colchester area, were contacted, but had heard nothing from him.

Police officers and hotel staff checked Mr Beecham's room, at Dalton House, which he shares with other members of staff, but found his clothes and belongings still there.

Sgt Alistair Livingstone, of Hadleigh police said: “We were called on Wednesday evening when Mr Beecham left his address, but failed to turn-up for work. On Wednesday night police dog handlers and members of staff from the hotel staff spent the night searching the area. The police helicopter was also used.”

A hall at the hotel was used as a central control room, from where the teams of divers and searchers were directed. The lakes and wooded areas within the 400-hectare site were the main focus of the search.

Colleagues last saw Mr Beecham when he left his accommodation at about 8.20pm and he was said to be in a good frame of mind. He was due to start work at 9pm, but never arrived.

Hotel manager Ricardo Santa-Rita said: “He didn't have any problems that we know about and he was a nice, clean-cut lad, the sort of person you want to employ. To not turn up is very uncharacteristic.”