THE man who died when his van plunged off a cliff has been identified.

Robert Hayball, 20, had gone missing from his home in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, shortly before reports were received of a vehicle going into the sea at Culver, near Sandown, in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Hampshire police’s marine unit found a body near to the van at the bottom of the cliffs yesterday afternoon, after bad weather and difficult tides hampered their recovery efforts, and it was later formally identified as Mr Hayball by members of his family.

Officers had been called to his Nelson Road home at 2.52am over fears for his safety.

Police are not treating the death as suspicious.

No one else is believed to have been in the vehicle.

Last night the van was still underwater off the coast at Culver, while emergency services worked out the best way to recover it.