THE family of a missing West Midlands man suffering from renal failure have been assured of his well-being after he was traced to a hotel in Great Yarmouth.

THE family of a missing West Midlands man suffering from renal failure have been assured of his well-being after he was traced to a hotel in Great Yarmouth.

The 77-year-old reportedly took off after a row but was tracked to Caister Road, Yarmouth, by licence plate recognition cameras looking for road-tax dodgers and other vehicle irregularities.

Police officers contacted the Tourist Information Centre and were directed to the Greater Yarmouth Tourist Authority who were able to locate the visitor by targeting its network of 800 contacts.

Karen Youngs, authority projects manager, said within a minute of putting the phone down she was able to email every holiday camp, guest house and hotel to see if anyone had booked in matching the description.

The result was that the man was quickly located and taken to hospital for checks by police. Ms Youngs said: “It was very gratifying. It is a very good system of communication that enables me to target all our members and some non-members. Generally it is used to alert people about scams involving hotel bookings and arcade machines, things like that - we are a very interactive organisation.

“We have helped someone when they needed it and that's great.”

The man who was traced to the All Seasons hotel in Nelson Road South was reportedly quite happy to be “found” and pledged to return home in the next few days.