One of the UK's former most wanted women has had her jail sentence more than doubled for a massive fraud that laundered nearly £1billion.
Sarah Panitzke, 48, has been resentenced to 17 years for £2.4million VAT fraud.
The former public schoolgirl owes taxpayers full amount plus interest - coming it at nearly £3.8million in February - after nine years on the run from the taxman.
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Panitzke was given another nine years in prison at City of London Magistrates' Court on Friday for failing to pay the £2,455,913 confiscation order.
She still owes the full amount plus interest.
Panitzke was said to have “disappeared into thin air” when she left Britain during her trial for money laundering offences and fled to Spain.
The organised crime gang member was jailed for eight years for the original offences in June 2022.
She and her 16 co-conspirators were handed sentences that totalled more than 135 years.
Panitzke was identified as part of an organised crime group responsible for laundering approximately £1 billion from a mobile phone VAT fraud.
During the scam, she was part of a group of companies that bought cheap mobile phones abroad without VAT before selling them into Britain for a big profits.
Nicol Sheppard, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said Panitzke's actions had deprived the UK of vital public money.
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He said: "Panitzke was part of a criminal gang that stole millions of pounds of taxpayers' money and deprived our public services of vital funding. She failed to repay the money she stole and now faces even more time behind bars, and still owes the money.
"Sarah Panitzke played a pivotal role in a sophisticated multi-million-pound fraud and laundered extraordinary volumes of stolen money through offshore bank accounts.
"The gang she was part of set up numerous businesses claiming to be legitimately importing and selling mobile phones.
"But the businesses were a front for an elaborate scheme to steal more than £20 million in VAT repayments."
The NCA's International Deputy Director Tom Dowdall said after her arrest: "Sarah Panitzke has been on the run for almost nine years.
"Given the length of time she might have thought we had stopped searching, but she remained on our radar.
"Joint working between UK law enforcement and our partners in Spain led to her being apprehended, and we will now seek her extradition back to the UK to serve her prison sentence.
"This should serve as a warning to others on our most wanted list - we will not rest until you are captured, no matter how long it takes."
The con artist is believed to have led a life of luxury in a gated community in the hills of Vilanova i la Geltrú, an hour from the centre of Barcelona, before justice finally caught up with her.
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