A fraudster dubbed the UK’s most wanted woman has been arrested in Spain after nearly a decade on the run.
Sarah Panitzke, 47, vanished in May 2013 while being investigated over her part in washing cash from a £1bn cell phone charge trick.She was captured while strolling her canines in Santa Barbara, Tarragona, on Sunday, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.Panitzke, initially from Fulford, York, was indicted and condemned in her nonappearance to eight years in prison. Simon York, from HM Revenue and Customs, said Panitzke had played a “critical job” in the trick, moving millions through seaward ledgers.She had been the subject of various “generally cared about” requests to observe escapees since she disappeared.The Spanish Guardia Civil said she was found to a town close to Barcelona in 2015, however she became mindful of the police activity to capture her, so masked herself and figured out how to escape.Last month, she was followed to the modest community of Santa Barbara and put under reconnaissance until her capture.Removal procedures have begun to take her back to the UK, the NCA said.The organization’s global delegate chief Tom Dowdall said: “Sarah Panitzke has been on the run for right around nine years. Given the time span, she could have thought we had quit looking, yet she stayed on our radar.”Joint working between UK regulation requirement and our accomplices in Spain prompted her being caught, and we will presently look for her removal back to the UK to carry out her jail punishment.”This should fill in as an advance notice to others on our most needed list – we won’t rest until you are caught, regardless of how lengthy it takes.”