Brother of Security Van Thief Arrested

10 June 2013, 12:15 | Updated: 10 June 2013, 12:21

Police have arrested the brother of Eddie Maher - who was jailed for the 1993 theft of a security van containing £1.2 million - as he attempted to return to the UK.

62 year old Michael Maher was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender as he flew into Luton Airport yesterday. He had recently been living in Torremolinos in Spain.

Suffolk Police had been searching for Michael Maher since his 57 year old brother was jailed for five years in March after admitting the theft of a Securicor van he was driving from outside Lloyds Bank in Felixstowe.

Eddie Maher spent almost 20 years on the run in the US following the theft.

A Suffolk Police spokesman said: "A 62 year old, from Torremolinos, was arrested at Luton Airport yesterday on suspicion of assisting an offender and was taken to Martlesham Police Investigation Centre where he currently remains.'"

Eddie Maher, originally from South Woodham Ferrers, Essex, became known as "Fast Eddie'' after disappearing from the country following the heist.

He was arrested in Missouri in 2012, where he was working as a cable engineer, after his son's estranged wife reported her suspicions to police.

It emerged he had spent two decades moving around the US and had spent his criminal gains on a string of properties.

Police have never established how he managed to flee the UK after the theft.

Earlier this year police said they would not be taking any further action against his partner Deborah Brett, 47, sister Margaret Francis, 64, and Paul Muggleton, 54, from Woodford Green in east London, who had all been on police bail after being arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and conspiracy to commit theft.

But during Maher's hearing at Southwark Crown Court, prosecutors said there were other individuals they wished to speak to about Eddie Maher's time at large.