Mug shot issued in Africa to bring fraudster back to justice

APPEAL: Reward offered for information about Angus criminal

Authorities have released the mug shot of an Angus fugitive who faces 26 years behind bars.

A paid advert has been posted in daily newspapers in Kenya with a potential reward offered for information about Gareth Johnson.

Johnson, 49, formerly of Forfar, has links to East Africa, especially Nairobi and Mombassa, Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

He remains at large after going on the run with his father Geoffrey, 74, before a £20 million mobile phone fraud trial in 2014.

HMRC ordered the pair to pay back £109m or 14 years would be added to the 10 and 12-year sentences imposed in their absence.

International arrest warrants were issued but they continued to hide in Tanzania.

The Johnsons finally fled to neighbouring Kenya, where Geoffrey was holed up in Mombassa, while Gareth rented an apartment in Muthaiga, a suburb near Nairobi.

Johnson’s father was eventually deported from Dubai in July after the authorities caught him travelling from Kenya on a false passport.

Gareth remains at large, however and HMRC believes he may be living in East Africa. It has offered a potential reward to anyone with information.

Assets from the family’s criminality have since been sold off, including expensive sports cars and a luxury home in Forfar that has since been turned into a hotel.

Gareth Johnson was the principal controller behind Tectonics Holdings, which played an integral role in the fraud as the money laundering arm of the operation.

He also had control of Coast Logistics, which was another company used in the carousel fraud.

The advert placed in Kenyan newspapers by HMRC.