A HAMPSHIRE dad who had been missing for 11 days has been found safe and well on the Isle of Wight.

Contract draughtsman Martin Ellis, from Totton, disappeared after dropping his 15-year-old son off at Testwood School 11 days ago. His wife Julie reported him missing after he failed to turn up for work in Lyndhurst that morning.

A week ago the the father-of-two's distressed family made an appeal through the Daily Echo for him to get in touch.

Last Saturday Mr Ellis' white BMW car was found in WestQuay shopping centre car park. It had a ticket in it timed at 8.30am.

Police had been examining CCTV footage from WestQuay, bank and telephone records in the search for clues. Mr Ellis' mystery disappearance had come less than a week after the family had returned from a two-week holiday of a lifetime to Florida.

The 40-year-old had not left a note and he failed to get in touch with any family or friends after vanishing.

He had left the house with just the clothes he was wearing.

Just before lunchtime yesterday Mr Ellis was spotted by a member of the public on the Isle of Wight. Officers on the Island were able to talk to him yesterday but would not say when Mr Ellis was expected to be reunited with his family.

A spokesman for Hampshire police, who would not reveal where on the Isle of Wight Mr Ellis was found, said: "Somebody spotted him on the Isle of Wight. He was safe and well.

"The family are relieved but the priority is to get them in touch with him.

"We would like to thank the Daily Echo for its assistance in publishing the appeal."

When the Daily Echo called at the family home in Slater Close yesterday there was nobody there to comment but a neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: "That's a relief.

"We did not know much about it other than what we had read."