Fugitive who eluded police for 19 years arrested

London: A British security guard who vanished at the same time as more than £1 million (Dh5 million) 19 years ago has been arrested in the US.

Eddie Maher, 56, was living in a backwater Missouri town and working for a cable company after filing for bankruptcy in 2010.

He was sharing a £40,000 apartment overlooking a factory with his wife and two sons, and using the name Mike Maher. On Wednesday, He was charged with being an illegal alien in possession of firearms — two pistols and two rifles — which were seized from his home in the town of Ozark and a storage facility.

Abandoned

Maher was 37 when the Securicor van he was driving disappeared while a colleague made a delivery to a bank in Felixstowe, Suffolk, in January 1993. The armoured vehicle was found abandoned half a mile away, but 50 bags containing £1.3 million in £10 and £20 notes were missing. Detectives at first thought Maher and his family might have been kidnapped, but a search of their rented house in South Woodham Ferrers, Essex, showed no signs of a struggle. Enquiries subsequently suggested the money was loaded into a grey Toyota Previa with false number plates. The car had been stolen from Stepney in east London and was used to transport the money to another getaway car. The Toyota was later spotted in a car park with a pair of Securicor uniform epaulettes nearby. The second car was found burnt out in Essex.

Neighbours reported seeing Maher's girlfriend, Debbie Brett, leaving their house with suitcases and their three-year-old son Lee.