£250m VAT fraud suspect arrested in Hungary

A man wanted for a £250 million VAT fraud has been arrested three months after being included on a list of the UK's 10 most wanted criminals.

Dennis Hunter was arrested in Hungary on Tuesday.

He was charged by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for cheating the public revenue through fraud and for laundering the proceeds but fled before standing trial.

He was one of 10 people whose names and pictures were released by Crimestoppers three months ago at the launch of Operation Captura 2.

He is the fifth member of the list to be arrested since then.

Operation Captura 2 targets criminals who are believed to have fled to the continent.

Crimestoppers' chairman and founder Lord Ashcroft said: "We have been blown away by the huge success of Operation Captura 2; to reach a 50% success rate within three months of launching the appeals is brilliant.

"These results highlight how effective this multi-agency partnership has been in detecting and capturing these dangerous criminals."