Ananova:

A Briton living in New Zealand in an old car, with a pet possum, has denied he is missing aristocrat Lord Lucan.

Neighbours became convinced homeless Roger Woodgate was the vanished peer because of his "upper-class" English accent and "military bearing".

But he says he is a former photographer who happened to move to New Zealand in the same year Lord Lucan went missing, reports the BBC.

The 7th Earl of Lucan disappeared in 1974 after the murder of his children's nanny in Belgravia, London.

Mr Woodgate lives in a battered Land Rover near the country town of Marton with a cat, a pet possum called Redfern and goat named Camilla.

Neighbour Margaret Harris said she became convinced he was Lord Lucan after seeing a picture of the peer in an old magazine.

She told TVNZ: "I spotted this piece and I thought 'oh my God, don't tell me that's who he is?'.

"I'm sure that is who he is because he is trying to make out he's a very poor man; poor my foot."

Local journalists then found out about her belief and, believing they were on the verge of solving a 33-year-old mystery, rushed to interview Mr Woodgate.

He, however, quickly denied he was hiding a secret identity.

He says he is a former photographer who once worked for the Ministry of Defence and left the UK five months before Lord Lucan went missing.

Mr Woodgate also pointed out he was five inches shorter than Lord Lucan and, at 62, is 10 years younger than the aristocrat would be now.