A security guard who spent almost 20 years as a fugitive in the US was today jailed for five years after admitting one of Britain’s most audacious thefts.
Eddie Maher, known as Fast Eddie, stole £1.2 million from the Securicor van he was driving and fled. The 57-year-old from Essex was arrested in Missouri in February last year after living under various aliases, including Stephen King. He was deported to Britain last May.
He had been wanted by Suffolk police since the Securicor van disappeared outside Lloyds Bank in Felixstowe on January 22, 1993. While his colleagues entered the bank, Maher drove off with 50 bags of notes and coins.
By the time police tracked his van, he had vanished. He built a new life with partner Deborah Brett and their son Lee, who was three at the time of the theft. Today Maher, grey-haired balding and dressed in a suit, appeared at Southwark crown court, where he entered a last-minute guilty plea after being expected to fight the case.
Police revealed details of property investments they say he funded from the proceeds of the crime, including a $120,000 Colorado home bought with cash six months after the theft.
Later Maher built an 80-acre ranch in Colorado before moving around the states of Florida, Wisconsin, Texas, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. He grew a beard and wore over-sized spectacles to change his appearance. On February 9 last year, while he was living as a cable engineer in Missouri, he was arrested for illegally possessing firearms.
In court, Maher, born in Dagenham, answered “guilty” after the court clerk put the charge of theft to him.
Brett, 47, Maher’s sister Margaret Francis, 64, and a 54-year-old man from Woodford Green are on bail after being arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft.
Maher’s daughter-in-law Jessica King blew the whistle on him, the court heard. David Nathan, QC, defending said Miss King had been romantically involved with the best friend of Maher’s son Lee. She fell for Lee after he won “a lot of money on the lottery” but turned in his father after their relationship deteriorated. Jailing Maher, Mr Justice Nicol said: “You made a very substantial gain even if, as you say, the money has now gone.”
