Detectives from Dublin are to travel to England to seek the extradition of investment broker, Tony Taylor, who was arrested in Sussex earlier today. Taylor fled Ireland in August 1996 after losing up to £2.5 million of investors' funds through failed investment companies.
British police say they believe he had been living in the seaside town of Eastbourne. He is due to appear in court in Brighton tomorrow morning. Detectives from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, working with Gardaí in Rathfarnam in Dublin, had been searching for Mr. Taylor since he fled the country three years ago. There are 15 extradition warrants in connection with the case.
Tony Taylor was one of the country's best known investment brokers when he went missing three years ago after his Ballsbridge company, Taylor Investment Group, collapsed. Subsequently it emerged that he had lost up to £2.5m of investors' funds. Among those who lost out was the Society of St. Vincent dePaul, which had invested more than £180,000, which was to be used to run a holiday home in north County Dublin.
Investors had placed funds with Mr. Taylor on the basis of promised high rates of return. Fresh investments were used to pay earlier investors. News of the situation first emerged from the British Brokers regulatory authority and not its Irish Counterpart. Since his disappearance in August 1996, Gardaí have been searching for Mr. Taylor and members of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation were present when English police arrested Mr. Taylor at half past three this afternoon.
There have been various reported sightings of Tony Taylor across the world over the past three years, but today the missing broker was finally tracked down in the small English seaside town of Eastbourne in Sussex. He is due to appear at Brighton Magistrates Court at half past ten tomorrow.
