A NOTORIOUS thief, who spent nearly two decades evading police, has finally been brought to justice.
'Fast' Eddie Maher, from South Woodham Ferrers, who stole more than £1 million from a Suffolk security van in 1993, has spent the past 19 years on the run in the US.
But this week the disgraced security guard was sentenced to five years behind bars for his crime after being shopped to police by his own daughter-in-law.
Maher, now 57, disappeared with his family from their home in Freemantle Close in January 1993 along with the £1,172,500 he stole from a Securicor van in Felixstowe.
Switching cars twice, he fled to the airport to catch a plane to Boston where his wife, Deborah Brett, and their three-year-old son, waited for him in a hotel.
The family did everything possible to escape capture, adopting aliases and travelling across eight American states before ending up in Missouri.
But it appears fear of being caught did not stop the ex-fireghter from living an audacious lifestyle.
He bought a property in Colarado Springs with $119,000 cash, and later attempted to build his own ranch on 80 acres of land he purchased.
The ability to invest thousands in property was a far cry from Maher's life in Essex, where he had amassed vast debts. After leaving the Army he had worked as a market trader, firefighter and pub landlord. His premises, The Gardeners Arms, in Rochester, Kent, was fire-bombed within months of him taking it on, a further blow to his finances.
Speaking at Southwark Crown Court Mr Justice Nicol said: "You were forced to sell up the pub and debts started to accumulate."
American friends of the couple, who knew them as Stephen King and Barbara Anthony, could have had no clue of his criminal past until police arrested Maher at their home address in Ozark in February last year. The tip-off came from son Lee's estranged wife, Jessica King, who saw the £100,000 reward available for information leading to Maher's arrest.
David Nathan QC, defending Maher, said Miss King had become suspicious after learning the family could not return to the UK.
"She did a little research on Google and realised that Mr Maher could not go back because he was wanted in connection with the offence.
"She heard there was a reward and so went to the federal authorities.
"Just to complete that part of the extraordinary tale, Mr Maher knew they were coming for him because, some days beforehand, his son Lee had been arrested for a motoring matter.
"He had gone to the police station to bail out his son and was told by an officer that there was a rumour he was wanted for an offence back in his own country," the barrister told the court.
Appearing at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, Maher, now grey and balding, pleaded guilty to the charge of theft. His wife was watching from the public gallery.
In jailing him for five years, Mr Justice Nicol said the crime had been a "gross breach of trust" involving a "very substantial amount".
The judge recognised that while Maher's family would be "pained" by the separation, it was to be expected that "those who commit crime cause harm and distress to those who are close to them".
