Suspected fraudster Mark Acklom evades capture after Geneva sighting

Acklom, who is wanted by UK police for allegedly fleecing his fiancee, was seen in Geneva while police looked for him in Spain.

One of Britain's most-wanted fugitives has managed to evade police for a second time after he was spotted at a pavement cafe.

Suspected fraudster Mark Acklom was photographed in Geneva while police were searching for him in Spain.

But, apparently, he realised he had been recognised and by the time police were informed he had disappeared again.

Acklom is wanted by Avon and Somerset Police for allegedly fleecing fiancee Carolyn Woods of all her savings, £850,000, in Gloucestershire four years ago.

Sky News tracked him down two years ago to Spain, where he was jailed for fraud, but he finished his sentence early and fled before UK police had organised a European Arrest Warrant.

The warrant was issued last June, and in October Acklom's name was added by the National Crime Agency to the latest list of 10 most-wanted fugitives.

He was thought to be still in Spain, where his Spanish wife runs a property business.

Three weeks ago Acklom was photographed chatting over coffee with an unknown man outside a cafe close to the centre of Geneva, nearly 700 miles from where police had been looking for him.

I understand he was photographed by an alleged victim of a financial scam who recognised Acklom by chance.

The photograph was passed to police and the UK's National Crime Agency is now investigating the sighting.

Swiss police have established it was Acklom and questioned cafe staff, but the proprietor told me he did not know him, nor could he remember him.

I understand the cafe was put under surveillance, but Acklom has not been back.

Ms Woods said: "I'm not really surprised that he's sitting openly in public because he is supremely arrogant and probably feels invincible - not surprising bearing in mind he has slipped through the net so easily on numerous occasions before.

"I do not feel at all surprised that the authorities still haven't caught him.

"I was hopeful when he was named as one of the 10 most-wanted fugitives that efforts would be stepped up to find him and arrest him, but very little seems to have been done since then, and he has obviously been moving easily from one country to the next.

"My faith in the authorities is virtually non-existent."

Acklom, 45, may have moved to Switzerland because it is not an EU member and does not recognise the European Arrest Warrant, though it does have an extradition agreement with the UK.

If he felt safer in Switzerland he was wrong, according to British extradition lawyer Peter Binning, of Corker Binning.

He said: "Switzerland is a member of the Counsel of Europe, as is the UK, and there has been an extradition treaty amongst all Counsel of Europe Countries since 1957 and that treaty will apply to enable the British authorities to seek his extradition."

Acklom knows Geneva and lived here before he moved back to the UK in 2011.

He used his knowledge of the city's famous financial sector to claim, falsely, that he was a wealthy Swiss banker and tax exile.

He allegedly persuaded a number of people to invest in various British projects he claimed he was helping to finance.

By;Worldcoinsmoney.blogspot.com