Family and friends of a man who has not been seen for more than five weeks, have been handing out leaflets in an appeal to the public for information.

David Leavey, 37, who lives in Frindsbury Road, Strood, was last seen in New Road, Chatham, on Thursday, December 11, when he met a friend.

The next day they arranged by text to meet up again on Saturday, December 13, but Mr Leavey did not show up. He was reported missing on December 30 by this friend.

Mr Leavey has not been seen or made contact with friends or family since and concerns are growing for his welfare.

They have set up a Help Find David “Skinny” Leavey page on Facebook, which reveals that they believe he has no money and no phone.

One post on the page said: “Dave very much kept himself to himself and would often go a month without texting or answering phone calls so his family and friends just presumed he was going through one of those times.

“He has friends that we don’t know of and haven’t had any contact with and it was one of these friends that reported him missing.”

According to the page, Mr Leavey is originally from Newcastle and may have returned there. A poster has been created for people to print off and share, a link to the poster can be found on the Facebook page.

Another post said: “There is still a chance that Dave just doesn’t want to be found. This is very hard for the family and friends to accept but if we knew he was okay we would totally respect his wishes and let him carry on.

“So Dave if you somehow see this please get in touch with the police or us either way and we will help you.”

Mr Leavey is about 6ft 1in, with a receding hairline and has stubble on his face. He is thought to have links to the boating community.

Anyone who has information about his whereabouts, is asked to call police on 101, quoting incident reference 30-1317.