An appeal has been launched to find relatives of a former Wisbech publican who enjoyed his moment of fame by renaming his pub The Muppet Inn.

Robert Mulholland, 58, origingally of Lisburn in Northern Ireland, has died at his home in the Abram area of Manchester.

Police are now trying to find his next of kin; Mr Mulholland went up north after leaving his Wisbech pub, since renamed The Globe.

He is also known to have lived in Wigan.

“There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death,” said a police spokesman.

Mr Mulholland attracted the national media to Wisbech when, in 2005, he renamed the Market Place pub – also once known as The Market Inn- the Muppet Inn.

“It was basically a bit of reverse psychology, a lot of people were calling it that anyway,” he said at the time.

“ It was a way of giving people who’d never drunk in here but were calling it that the two fingers.

“It started as a bit of a joke with my customers. It’s got a bit of a chequered history, but it’s a brilliant pub now.

“We had talked about it as a joke for months and then decided to do something about it.”

Four years later Mr Mulholland was back in the news, describing himself as a “bit of muppet” for allowing two teenage girls to bank his takings. En route they helped themselves to £150. A court later gave them a community order and made them repay the cash.

“I will change my middle name to Kermit,” he joked after attending the girls’ court case.

But, he added: “I don’t just hand money to anybody.” He had known the girls for three years, and sometimes had difficulty in leaving his pub to bank cash.

“I was mostly annoyed because I had given them a chance to hand the money back before it went to court,” he added. “They took my dog to the bank with them, but they did return that.”

Anyone with family connections to Mr Mulholland has been asked to call the coroner’s officer at HM Coroners Paderborn House, Bolton, on 0161 856 5496.