Man who left his Christmas wages in a pub has been reunited with his cash

Mariusz had returned to Poland and was not aware of the social media campaign aimed at reuniting him with his cash

Mariusz (pictured centre) picked up his wages from the pub on December 27 (Alexandra Wimbledon)

A man who left his wages in a pub has been reunited with his cash after a worldwide search to find him.

Mariusz had been in The Alexandra pub in Wimbledon with workmates on 22 December when he left his full wage packet behind.

The pub's owners launched a campaign to find him before Christmas Day but couldn't locate him despite appeals being viewed more than 1.5 million times on their Facebook page.

Eventually, however, the man's son spotted the pub's post on Facebook and showed it to his dad, asking if the CCTV image was of him.

And on Wednesday Mariusz was reunited with the pay packet - £600 in cash.

According to the pub's owners, he had returned to Poland for the holidays and did not tell his wife he had lost the money as "he didn't want no stress over Christmas."

The Alexandra shared the good news on its Facebook page saying: "In probably the most understated and anti-climatic end to a saga in history, Mariusz walked into our sports bar and said ‘I’m Mariusz and I think you’ve got my money.’

“Upon being asked, he told me the chair he was sitting on (we found the envelope underneath that one), told me what time he came in (we checked him in on the CCTV) and told me to the penny how much was in the packet. It’s 100% him.”

According to the post, Mariusz was grateful and left a hefty tip for the person behind the bar who found it.

It continued: “By hook or by crook we found our way to Mariusz who ‘never’ uses social media.”

Pub landlord Mick Dore told BBC News that Mariusz was "like Lord Lucan in the end" and probably didn't "appreciate the fact the whole world was looking for him".

Mr Dore also paid tribute to the honesty of barman Andrew Radcliffe who found the pay packet in the first place and sparked the online search. "We're hugely proud of him. Without his honesty there would be no story," he said.