UK’s most wanted woman caught while walking dogs
A BRITISH woman on the run for nine years has been arrested while walking her dogs in Spain.
Sarah Panitzke, 47, had been accused of laundering £1billion as part of aVAT fraud.
She was dubbed Britain’s most wanted woman after numerous appeals to find her since she vanished in 2013.
Panitzke is now being held in Catalonia, with Spanish authorities claiming she is the only member of a crime gang that remained free, after 16 others were jailed.
She is accused of laundering money through companies in Spain, Andorra and Dubai for a group that bought mobile phones abroad without VAT and resold them in the UK. Panitzke, originally from Fulford, near York, has appeared in a Spanish court and is in custody while extradition proceedings begin, the National Crime Agency said.
She vanished in May 2013 while facing trial for money laundering, and was convicted and sentenced in her absence to eight years in prison. NCA international deputy director Tom Dowdall said: “Sarah Panitzke has been on the run for almost nine years. Given the length of time she might have thought we had stopped searching, but she remained on our radar.
“Joint working between UK law enforcement and our partners in Spain led to her being apprehended, and we will now seek her extradition back to the UK to serve her prison sentence.
“This should serve as a warning to others on our most wanted list. We will not rest until you are captured, no matter how long it takes.”
Panitzke had been the subject of a number of most wanted appeals since she vanished.
Simon York, director of the HMRC Fraud Investigation Service, said: “Sarah Panitzke was one of Britain’s most wanted tax fugitives.
“She played a pivotal role in a multi-million pound VAT fraud and moved millions through offshore bank accounts.
“Panitzke thought she had put herself outside of the reach of HMRC, but through our work with UK law enforcement and international partners we have tracked down another tax fugitive. No tax criminal is beyond our reach.”