LONDON—One of Britain’s most wanted men has been arrested in Switzerland, police said.
Mark Acklom, 45, is accused of multiple counts of fraud, including tricking a divorcee to lend him £850,000 ($1,120,000) of her life savings while posing as a Swiss banker and an MI6 agent.
Acklom was tracked down in a luxury apartment in Zurich on Saturday night, where he was living under a false name, in an operation involving Avon and Somerset Police, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), and Swiss authorities.
In 2016, a European arrest warrant was issued for the 45-year-old, and he was thought to be on the run in Spain.
He was featured in Operation Captura, a joint UK–Spanish campaign targeting the NCA’s most wanted fugitives in Spain.
According to Carolyn Woods, 61, who had a yearlong romance with Acklom in the British city of Bath, he had told her the banking was cover, and he was actually an MI6 agent. She said she was conned into lending him her savings for renovation works at a number of properties in Bath, Avon, and Somerset police said.
“I am delighted that after all this time Mark Acklom is in custody and I look forward to him being brought back to face justice,” Woods told Sky News.
Ian Cruxton, head of international operations for the NCA, said: “I’m really pleased for Carolyn Woods as she’s been waiting a long time for news of his arrest. We have a well-established extradition treaty with the Swiss authorities and court proceedings will now begin.”
He added, “The hunt for conman Mark Acklom started in Spain but as soon as intelligence indicated he had moved to Switzerland, we utilized our assets there and worked closely with the Swiss authorities and Avon & Somerset Police to track him down.”
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