‘Missing’ man had joined the Foreign Legion

A MISSING Briton has been criticised after an international manhunt failed to find him – because he had joined the French Foreign Legion without telling anyone.

Charles Luck, 20, pictured, was last seen by relatives in June when he left to become a gamekeeper in France. But instead he secretly joined the French Foreign Legion, which took his phone and passport, gave him a new identity and a fictional backstory and told him to keep his training secret from everyone.

When his family lost contact with him, they filed a missing persons’ report with British and French police, sparking international searches.

In the meantime Mr Luck, from York, became disillusioned with the Legion, which has agreed to discharge him. His sister, India, 18, said: ‘He feels terrible.’

But a correspondent to Mr Luck’s local paper in York, The Press, called him ‘an idiot’, adding: ‘How much public money was wasted looking for this person?’