Five men have been charged with the murder of a British car salesman who disappeared in Barbados.

Steven Weare, 49, was working on the Caribbean island when he went missing 21 days ago. His body was found last Friday in a remote part of the parish of St George, seven miles east of the capital Bridgetown, police said.

Insp Roland Cobbler, a spokesman for the Royal Barbados police, confirmed to the Guardian on Wednesday that five men had been charged with Weare’s murder.

Cobbler said he did not have any detail about the circumstances surrounding Weare’s death or how he died. He said: “I can tell you that five men, between the ages of 26 and 35, were all charged with murder and they are going to court this morning.”

Cobbler confirmed that the men charged with Weare’s murder were Sunil Decourcey Brome, 35; Keino Nakito Griffith, 30; Christopher Darnley Michael Clarke, 26; Torio Akiro Watson, 26, and Basil Alphonso Branch, 27. All of the men are from Barbados.

Weare, from Kirkham in Lancashire, had reportedly been staying at Newcastle plantation house in the St John area on the east of the Caribbean island, when he was reported missing on 23 August.

Weare is listed as a director of Fylde Motor Company, sometimes known as Rock Cars, a family-run business set up 18 years ago in Kirkham, a small town between Preston and Blackpool.

A Lancashire police spokesman said: “We are supporting the family and are in contact with the Foreign Office and the Royal Barbados police force.”