A NEW documentary will follow police officers as they attempt to trace an armed forces veteran from Warrington after he was reported missing from home.

Mark Smith vanished from his home in Great Sankey in November 2017.

Two years later, the BBC’s Reported Missing series will provide an in-depth look at Cheshire Police’s efforts to trace him.

Mr Smith founded Blue Apple Heroes in 2012, with the charity aiding hundreds of veterans from its base on Buttermarket Street in the town centre before closing in early 2018.

Warrington Guardian:

The programme – which will be screened on BBC One at 9pm on Monday, December 2 – follows investigations sparked when the organisation’s chief executive Mark Moran reported him as missing.

At that stage, the post-traumatic stress disorder sufferer had not been seen for almost 24 hours and had left his desk ‘unusually tidy’ – leaving behind his mobile phone and wallet after an argument with his wife.

With Mr Smith having ‘behaving increasingly erratically for weeks’, a major police search operation followed.

Having last been seen boarding a train from Warrington Bank Quay to Glasgow, he was later found ‘safe and well’ in Scotland.

The stresses of running the charity as well as allegations of fraud made to the police – of which he was later cleared – had led to him going missing.

Mr Smith told the Warrington Guardian earlier this year: "For about two years I had been trying to get someone to take over the charity, because it was starting to have a reverse effect on my mental health.

"We had rent to pay for the charity, and it started to cripple us.

"I went missing and I was seriously considering taking my own life.

"Then the people who made these allegations told the lies they did, and people started believing them.

"But the majority of people supported us and knew it wasn't true.

"It wasn't a good time – but I'm moving on, it's just good to have our lives back.

"We helped more than 300 veterans in that five years, and we probably saved half a dozen lives.”