Fast Eddie: Police Go To Court To Get Money Off A Felixstowe Bank Robber

20 September 2013, 07:23 | Updated: 20 September 2013, 07:37

Two decades after a million pound bank robbery in Felixstowe and police will go to court later to try to get some of the money back.

Eddie Maher - known as ''Fast Eddie'' - had been wanted by Suffolk Police since the security van containing £1.2 million he was driving disappeared from outside Lloyds Bank, Felixstowe, on January 22 1993.

He was arrested by US authorities in February last year before being deported and jailed at London's Southwark Crown Court last March.

Maher's life unravelled when his son, Lee King's disgruntled ex-wife Jessica King contacted US authorities to tell them he was a wanted man.

Maher - who used the false identities of Stephen King and Michael Maher while on the run - was arrested for immigration and firearms offences before being deported to the UK.

He had claimed he had only received £40,000 from the crime but police said the former soldier and firefighter had profited to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

After his conviction, detectives revealed details of series of property investments which they say he funded from the proceeds of the crime.

This included a house in Colorado bought with 120,000 US dollars in cash just six months after the theft.

Later Maher built a ranch on 80 acres of land in Colorado before moving around various US states.

At the time of his arrest on February 9 last year, he was working as a cable engineer in Missouri.

Maher, originally from South Woodham Ferrers, Essex, had been due to stand trial for theft but changed his plea to guilty.

The hearing will take place at Ipswich Crown Court from 11.15am.