Andrew Moran: Fugitive to be sent back to UK after Spain arrest Published duration 13 May 2013

media caption Police crept up on the suspect as he sat by a pool in a luxury villa north of Benidorm

One of Britain's most wanted fugitives is to be sent back to the UK after being arrested at a luxury villa on Spain's Costa Blanca.

Andrew Moran, 31, from Salford, Greater Manchester, was arrested by police in the resort of Alicante, in Calpe, on Friday.

At a court hearing in Madrid, he accepted a request for his extradition over an armed robbery in 2005.

Moran was convicted in his absence after fleeing during his trial in 2009.

The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said two handguns, 60 rounds of ammunition and a machete were discovered at his villa following his arrest.

Rammed police vehicles

image caption Andrew Moran escaped during his trial for armed robbery in 2009

Moran was placed on the Most Wanted list after leaping from the dock and assaulting four security guards during his trial at Burnley Crown Court in February 2009.

He was found guilty, alongside Stephen Devalda, of taking part in an armed robbery in which Royal Mail guards were threatened with a gun, machete and baseball bat in Colne, Lancashire, in May 2005.

One of the guards was assaulted before the offenders escaped with £25,000.

Soca revealed Moran was found by local police officers in Los Alcazares, Spain, in November but evaded capture by ramming two unmarked police vehicles and driving the wrong way down a motorway.

Devalda, 29, also from Salford, had also been on the run but was captured in Spain in March 2011.

He was later jailed by a judge at Preston Crown Court, for nine years and eight months.