A Salford man named as one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives – caught by Spanish police in a luxury villa on the Costa Blanca – will appear in court in Madrid today.
Andrew Moran, 31, was arrested by police in Calpe, near Alicante, on Friday.
He has been on the run since escaping court in 2009 during a trial for an armed robbery committed in 2005.
Moran was on a police ‘Most Wanted’ list after leaping from the dock and assaulting four security guards during his trial at Burnley Crown Court in 2009.
He was found guilty of taking part in an armed robbery, with accomplice Stephen Devalda, in which Royal Mail guards were threatened with a gun, machete and baseball bat in Colne, Lancashire, in May 2005.
The duo escaped with £25,000 in the violent raid.
While on the run, Moran altered his identity by growing a moustache and his hair and wearing glasses to avoid capture.
Devalda was arrested at a hotel in Marbella, Spain, in 2011 after also going on the run for some time.
When armed police swooped on Moran’s villa they found two handguns, 60 rounds of ammunition and a machete.
Moran was convicted in his absence for the 2005 robbery to nine years and eight months at Preston Crown Court.
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