UK's most wanted woman arrested while walking dog in Catalonia
Sarah Panitzke was convicted in 2013 for role in €1.2bn tax fraud
After almost a decade on the run, the United Kingdom's most wanted woman was arrested on Sunday while out walking her dog in Santa Bàrbara, a small town in the south of Catalonia.
Sarah Panitzke, 47, disappeared during a trial in the UK in 2013 but was convicted and sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for money laundering as part of a €1.2bn mobile phone tax scam.
Originally from York, she was a member of a 16-strong criminal organization that bought mobile phones outside the UK without paying VAT and then resold in the UK, for an estimated profit of more than £1bn (€1.2bn), according to the British tax agency HMRC.
At one point the group was selling more phones in the UK than all legal shops combined.
Profits were laundered through multiple companies in Spain, Andorra and Dubai.
Second escape
Due to family ties, it was believed likely that Panitzke had fled to Spain. In 2015, the Spanish Guardia Civil discovered she was hiding out in the town of Olivella, 40km southwest of Barcelona, receiving visits from her husband, who brought her supplies at weekends. After becoming aware that she had been tracked down, she was able to evade authorities to flee again.
Earlier this year she was rediscovered, this time in Santa Bàrbara, where she was put under surveillance until being arrested on Sunday.
An extradition process has now begun and Panitzke has been imprisoned after being deemed a flight risk.