Bureau of Immigration (BI) agents have arrested a British con man who is on the top 10 list of the most wanted swindlers in the United Kingdom.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said operatives from the Bureau’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) arrested on Friday Adam James Stagg, 30, at his home along Yellow Papua Street, Don Bosco Compound, Mabalacat City, Pampanga.
Morente said Stagg, who is listed seventh in the UK’s ten most wanted list of criminal fraudsters, will be deported as soon as the BI Board of Commissioners issues the order for his summary deportation.
“Like all other foreign fugitives that we have arrested, this Briton will be expelled and sent back to his country to stand trial for his crimes,” said Morente who issued the mission order for Stagg’s arrest at the request of the British embassy.
Stagg, who hails from Bristol, is wanted by the Avon and Somerset police for the offense of fraud by false representation.
British authorities have long suspected that Stagg had been living a luxurious lifestyle in the Philippines after engaging in the fraudulent online sale of watches from October 2013 to June 2014.
He is said to have profited by as much as £20,000 from the racket wherein victims were duped into paying for designer watches they never received.
Police alleged that Stagg had set up a number of companies in the Philippines that sold watches to UK customers at prices that cost more than £100.
The victims, numbering some 140, reportedly paid money into various bank accounts belonging to Stagg’s associates who then sent the money to him in the Philippines.
However, none of his victims ever received a watch and some even reported to police that they were threatened when they tried to find out why they didn’t get what they bought. (from Bureau of Immigration news)