Police search teams today scoured farmland hunting for a missing pensioner who has not been seen for more than a month.

Officers with wooden sticks could be seen carrying out line searches of the land owned by William 'Bill' Taylor, who vanished from his £1.2million farm on June 3.

The 70-year-old reported that his car was deliberately torched after finding the burnt-out Land Rover in the days before he went missing.

North Hertfordshire Chief Inspector Julie Wheatley refused to confirm whether officers were searching for a body and said they were looking for any signs of 'whether William was taken poorly there'.

'We are looking for Bill, it may have been that he has taken poorly whilst he has been out in the fields,' she said. 'We know it has been just over four weeks since he has disappeared.

'We have searched out buildings, other buildings on the land extensively - this is just the next stage. This the deeper more involved search of the fields where the crops have grown.'