Dr Who fan Nic Kent may need to call upon the clue-seeking skills of the Time Lord to solve this particular mystery - who stole a 6ft Cyberman from his front garden.

The 68-year-old has had the life-sized fibreglass figure standing guard in his Sandhurst home for decades.

But while the latest BBC sci-fi series draws to a conclusion this weekend, the replica arch enemy has been absent from its regular Rye Road residence.

Retired programme manager Mr Kent concedes he doesn’t think Cyber Horace will ever be found, having conducted a lengthy search since it went missing.

But he hasn’t ruled out replacing the silver-clad cyborg.

He said: “I did look at some second-hand mannequins but I hadn’t got round to buying one yet. Probably, next year, I will.

“I have too many things to do at the minute. But that is certainly something on the to-do list.

“If I had a Cyberman 2, he would be chained down a lot more!”

Cyber Horace had lived with the family for decades.

Originally created by a student in the 1970s, the figure has undergone many changes over the years and helped collect the highest sponsorship for the Rye raft race in 1991.

“He was very popular. Mainly in the local shop because they knew him well down there,” Mr Kent said.

“They quite liked him."

He said: “He went through a series of changes, and he kept people guessing as to his next identity.”

He had lived with Mr Kent and his wife, Jacqui, in Kent and the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.

But Mr Kent is not holding up much hope for his return, adding: “I suppose, if somebody pinched him, they may have ditched him on the basis if he had been seen somewhere, it would have looked pretty obvious.

“It was a sad end for him.

“I think he is either squirrelled away in someone’s garden shed or has been ditched somewhere. I would have thought somebody would have seen him by now but apparently not!"

He said: “I think he is gone. If he were to turn up, I think he would have turned up fairly soon after.”

The Cyberman was created by an art student, Dave Goulding, who made the fibreglass mould using his own body at what then was the Middlesex Polytechnic.

He was named Horace after a Latin master at Dulwich College.

Dr Who airs on BBC1 Sunday.

Police say there is no further update in the investigation.