AN old army friend of a missing Huddersfield man will scale five Scottish peaks in a bid to find any trace of him.

Kenneth Holroyd was spurred into action after a huge search to find Steven Cooper ended in disappointment.

Steven left his home at Scar Lane in Golcar early on Monday January 21, which was his 47th birthday.

He left his mobile phone, cash and credit cards behind and has not used either of his two bank accounts since.

His Ford Focus car was found on the A86, near the Inverness village of Moy, near to Fort William, on Sunday, January 27.

Steven loves Scotland and had been to that area before.

The search stretched as far as 50 miles and included sonar searches of Loch Laggan, 20 miles north-east of Fort William.

The search – including mountain rescue teams and an RAF helicopter – failed to find any trace of him.

Kenneth, 49, served with Steven in the Territorial Army in Huddersfield in the mid 1980s.

He travelled to Scotland on Saturday and will search for his missing friend until the end of the week.

He aims to search five Munros – the Scottish name for a peak above 3,000ft.

Kenneth, who lives in Huddersfield, said: “I’ll be liaising closely with the police at Fort William and the Caingorm Mountain Rescue Team to cover any areas they think still need doing.

“There are five Munros in the area close to where the car was found, so I aim to search those. The search teams have covered the bases, but have not been to the peaks.’’

He gave an indication of the scale of the task to search for a missing person.

“There is woodland close to where the car was found,’’ he said. “But the undergrowth is so dense it would take hours to go 1/4-mile. The search teams had sent their dogs in there to search.’’

Kenneth said Steven was known as Cooperman among his TA colleagues and they had been on exercises in America and Dartmoor.

“He is a top notch guy,’’ said Kenneth. “I just want to do all I can to help.’’

Steven’s sister, Trish Cooper, has spearheaded a major effort to find Steven.

Don Lawson, one of the organisers of the Tartan Army website for soccer-mad Scotland fans, has emailed all 45,000 members of the Tartan Army information about Steven.

A poster has been sent to every tourist information board in the UK via a special tourist intranet website and Steven’s case was screened on the Missing programme on BBC1 on April 24.

Steven suffers from a rare condition, Marfan Syndrome, which meant he could not work.

Marfan Syndrome is a genetic disorder of the connective tissue which can involve many areas of the body.

The most serious problem is weakness of the aorta, the body’s largest artery, which affects most sufferers.

It left Steven with some difficulty walking and he sometimes walked with a stick.

Steven has two brothers, Christian and Mark, and his parents are Margaret and Donald Cooper. He has a 15-year-old stepson, Ian.

Steven lives with partner Claire Lodge and also has an 18-year-old stepdaughter, Zoe, and a 19-year-old son, Nathan, who does not live with the family.

Steven is 6ft 2in tall, slim, with blue/green eyes and short, thinning blond hair.

Anyone with any information should call freephone 0800 700740.