After nearly nine years on the lam, money launderer Sarah Panitzke—the only woman ever included on the UK’s most wanted list—was captured on Sunday (February 26) while walking her dogs in Santa Barbara, Spain.
When Panitzke was on trial for her “important part” in the gang of 18 conspirators that carried out the plot, she fled the country in May 2013. She was accused of being involved in a £1 billion tax scam. She was under supervision for several weeks prior to her imprisonment in Spain.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) reports that she showed up in court on February 28. According to the National Crime Agency, she was held in a Spanish jail while extradition procedures to return her to the UK were underway (NCA).
After an HMRC investigation, Panitzke was found guilty and given an eight-year prison term in her absence. Total prison time for the con artists was 135 years.
She was the only gang member still alive after being captured. The Spanish Guardia Civil claims that Sarah Panitzke hid in Spain with the help of her family members. But in 2015, she was living in the Olivella neighborhood of Barcelona, where her husband delivered groceries on the weekends.
When Panitzke learned about the police operation, she put on a disguise and disappeared. She supposedly cut off all contact with her family in Spain after leaving. Investigators learned that she was hiding in Santa Barbara in February.
In order to buy and sell telephones illegally, Sarah Panitzke and her accomplices established a network of businesses in Spain, Andorra, and Dubai. After purchasing the phones from EU countries VAT-free, the scammers resold them in the UK for more money, including tax.
After selling small, valuable phones that were easy to carry within and outside of the country, the businesses would disintegrate and disappear.
The fraudulent activities would then continue eternally. The squad of criminals from Spain and Britain was appointed by Geoffrey Johnson, 78. The gang members are believed to have met at an unspecified party abroad, as stated in the trial, despite appearing to be unrelated.
“Sarah Panitzke has been evading capture for more than nine years. She might have thought we had given up looking for her given the length of time, but she continued to be on our radar. She was apprehended with the help of UK law enforcement and our friends in Spain, and we will now work to have her extradited to the UK so she may serve out her sentence there.
This should serve as a warning to everyone on our most-wanted list: no matter how long it takes, we won’t stop looking for you until you’re found.
“Panitzke assumed she was out of reach of HMRC, but owing to our cooperation with UK law enforcement and overseas allies, we have captured another tax evader,” the statement continued. No tax evader escapes our attention.
York added that more than 60 fugitives have been captured in the previous six years, saying:
“Since 2016, we have helped more than 60 fugitives, including some of the most dangerous tax evaders in the UK, return home.”
Sarah Panitzke was born into a prosperous family in the village of Escrick, close to Selby, North Yorkshire. Leo, her father, was a real estate developer and an insurance salesman. Leo, on the other hand, received a four-year prison term after it was discovered that he had bought council properties and sold them for a sizable profit. She attended York College for Girls before transferring to St. Peter’s School, which charges tuition.
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