London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 10, 2025

Sarah Panitzke: UK's most wanted woman jailed over fraud

Sarah Panitzke: UK's most wanted woman jailed over fraud

A fraudster who became the UK's most wanted woman after fleeing to Spain while on trial for money laundering has been jailed for eight years.

Sarah Panitzke, 48, from York, went missing in 2013 while on trial for her part in a £1bn mobile phone tax scam.

She spent nine years on the run before being arrested while dog walking in Santa Barbara, Tarragona, in February.

Panitzke appeared at Kingston Crown Court in London after being extradited back to the UK.

She had initially been charged with conspiracy to acquire criminal property in relation to her role in a multimillion-pound VAT fraud in 2010, and was found guilty in her absence in 2013.

Panitzke was sentenced to eight years in her absence, which Friday's judge, Sarah Plaschkes QC, said should start immediately after her appearance in court.

She was arrested while walking her dogs in Santa Barbara, Tarragona


The judge recapped to the court the sentence handed down in 2013, before adding: "That sentence will start today now that you have been extradited to this country."

Panitzke, who was part of a scheme which laundered cash through offshore accounts, was told she would spend at least four years behind bars before she was eligible for parole.

A £2.4m confiscation order was also made against her in 2016.

She was given three months to pay the full amount or face an additional nine years in prison.

No money has ever been paid against this, leaving the amount including interest, standing at £3.4m in May 2022.

Interest continues to accrue at a rate of £538 a day.

National Crime Agency international deputy director Tom Dowdall said Pantizke had been on their most wanted list for a decade and her jailing was the result of "years of hard work".

Simon York, director of the HMRC fraud investigation service, said: "Panitzke thought she had put herself outside of the reach of HMRC, but through our work with UK law enforcement and international partners we have tracked down another tax fugitive.

"No tax criminal is beyond our reach."

The 48-year-old was extradited and appeared in court on Friday


A HMRC spokesman said Panitzke played a "pivotal role" in the fraud and laundered "extraordinary volumes" of stolen money through offshore bank accounts.

They said Panitzke and her 17 co-conspirators were given sentences totalling 135 years for the fraud.


The moment Sarah Panitzke was detained in Spain


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×