The arrest and pending extradition reported yesterday of a Briton living in Almancil (here) was of the Welsh 1980s golfing champion, Duncan Evans, who was nabbed by police on the fairway of a Quinta do Lago course.
Evans is wanted in the UK for a €22 million carousel VAT fraud after losing an appeal in June 2016.
The 58-year-old Welshman has been living in Quinta do Lago, despite having been reported as ‘fleeing to Spain’ by British media, and a European Arrest Warrant issued in the UK ensured Portuguese police were legally able to arrest him in mid-swing.
Duncan Evans, born in 1959 in St Asaph, Denbighshire, won the Amateur Championship at the Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in 1980. Evans was the first Welshman to have won the event and that year his achievement was recognised when he was made BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year.
In 2009, Evans was imprisoned for four years for his involvement in a £3.5 million VAT scam when he imported goods free of VAT to the UK and then claimed the VAT back from HMRC, VAT which had never been paid out in the first place.
Evans seems unable to drive clear of a life of crime as in 2003 he was in league with fraudster Leslie Cairns and was convicted to 3 years in prison for fraud.
He now sits in Évora jail awaiting extradition over his non-payment of a £19.6 million compensation order.
