THE mother of a Caldicot man who has been missing for more than 10 years has welcomed a new law for families to take charge of their missing relative’s finances.

The proposed law, which was announced by the Justice Minister Lord Faulks QC this week, will give the families of missing people rights to access their financial affairs to sort out direct debits or mortgage payments. Under the proposals the court will appoint a guardian to look after the interests of a missing person for up to four years.

James Nutley, of Caldicot, was just 25 years old when he went missing on October 24, 2004, while on a golfing trip in Tenby. His last known whereabouts were captured by CCTV cameras at 11.57pm as he was crossing the road towards the Atlantic Hotel in Tenby.

His mother, Catherine Nutley, 62, said she thinks the new law is a good idea and would help the families of missing people.

She said: “I managed when James went missing to access his account as I worked for the firm. I managed to get it sorted but they didn’t have anything in place for missing people and most banks are the same – if someone with a mortgage went missing, where does that leave you? We were lucky in a small sense as we got access. There can be a lot of difficulty when it comes to property and anything financially.

“Some firms wouldn’t speak to you – for example with James’ mobile it wasn’t until you got someone higher up to talk to you – they didn’t want to know. You explained it to the managers and then it was no problem.”

She added: “It’s a bad enough time with what you’re going through without all that hassle. More and more people are going missing now before you didn’t hear a lot about it.”

The provisional proposals were developed by the Ministry of Justice with the help of the charity Missing People, and lawyers Clifford Chance LLP. The Government hopes the legislation will be brought forward in the new Parliament.

Susannah Drury, director of policy and advocacy for Missing People, said: “Until now these families have been powerless to stop the lives that they hope their missing loved ones will return to from falling apart.”

James is 6ft 2in, has brown hair and was wearing a white top with blue sleeves and blue jeans on the night he vanished.

For more information www.missingpeople.org.uk/help-us-find/james-nutley