A £10,000 reward has been offered to anyone who can locate thousands of pounds worth of stolen silverware.

The valuable items, worth £100,000 in total, were stolen from the University of Sussex’s sacristy at Falmer, near Brighton, about six months ago.

A generous reward put up by the university for help in solving the case is on offer.

Police are still trying to locate the missing items and to trace the man thought to have stolen them.

They now think the thief may have links with Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Wiltshire.

The theft happened between 1.50pm and 2.20pm on Friday, December 7.

Anyone who has information about the man pictured or the missing silver is urged to contact police.

Locked doors and containers were forced open to steal the valuables, which included two silver chalices by noted sculptor Hans Coper.

They are thought to have been placed in a black rucksack before the thief ran away towards the university’s Pevensey block. It is possible he then boarded a bus or got into another vehicle.

The suspect is described as a man in his 30s, mixed race, 6ft tall, of medium build, bald and has facial stubble.

He was wearing a blue Puffa-style jacket over a grey hooded top, grey tracksuit bottoms and trainers with white markings on them.

Dealers have been alerted to the theft and asked to report any suspicious transactions.