Who is Sarah Panitzke? Britain's most wanted woman caught after almost a decade of run
Sarah Panitzke, Britain's most wanted woman, has been caught and imprisoned in Spain after nearly a decade on the run. Panitzke, 47, had been on the run since 2013 when she was found guilty of laundering up to $1.3 billion for a VAT fraud scheme.
Panitzke was added to the list of Britain's fugitives after fleeing her trial as a major member of a criminal group involved in VAT fraud in May 2013. The fraudster with a private education was sentenced to eight years in jail in her absence in August 2013. After becoming the sole woman on the National Crime Agency's Most Wanted List, she supposedly "disappeared into thin air."
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In a recent call for information on the whereabouts of fugitive killers, sex attackers, and drug traffickers, British holidaymakers were requested to assist catch a convicted scammer from Fulford near York. She was claimed to be suffering in a prison near Madrid last night, awaiting deportation to the United Kingdom.
According to sources, she was apprehended while walking her dog near her house in Catalonia on Sunday, February 27. The Fugitive Task Force of the Civil Guard Central Operative Unit made the arrest. "Panitze was out walking her dog when she was arrested," a source claimed.
As per initial reports, the woman was arrested in the Catalan town of Vilanova i la Geltru but the police confirmed later that she was arrested in a village in the province of Tarragona. According to El Confidencial, who broke the news of Sunday's detention on Monday, she was protesting her forced return to the United Kingdom.
Two UK customs agents have sought to attend her extradition hearing, according to the publication. The Civil Guard has yet to publish an official statement on the situation. Joaquin Gadea, a Madrid-based judge, ordered her custody while she fights her forced return to the UK.
Who is Sarah Panitzke?
Panitzke comes from a rich background and attended York College for Girls before going on to St Peter's School. Her father, Leo, was a residential property developer and insurance broker when she was 19, but he was caught for buying council properties and selling them for a significant profit before being sentenced to four years in prison. She studied Spanish at Manchester Metropolitan University before moving to Barcelona to get a master's degree in business administration. After meeting an acquaintance, Sarah was recruited into famed tax evader Geoffrey Johnson's ring of 18 scammers operating across the UK.
Panitzke was part of a group of companies that bought low-cost mobile phones in other countries without paying VAT and then resold them for a profit in the UK. HMRC's investigation into the fraud ring, codenamed Operation Vaulter, resulted in a trial at Kingston Crown Court. After pleading not guilty, Sarah was sentenced to eight years in prison. The 18 members of the gang were sentenced to a total of 135 years in prison. She vanished before the trial was over.
She was believed to be living in the coastal town with two dogs and a long-term partner at the time, working as a hotel worker and property investor as "front jobs." According to recent sources, if she is arrested, she would face 17 years in prison due to her failure to pay a £2.4 million confiscation order, which has resulted in additional time being added to her prison sentence.
"The whole saga had been incredibly difficult for everyone involved," her brother Leon told Vice magazine last year. "170cm tall, slim build with mousey straight hair, blue eyes, and a Yorkshire accent," police described her in their wanted appeal.
"She controlled the company accounts of many companies remotely via different IP addresses. Panitzke traveled extensively to further the fraud to places including Dubai, Spain, and Andorra. She was responsible for laundering approximately one billion pounds," the NCA had said in an earlier appeal.