VICTORIA Police will launch an internal review after admitting it relied on an amateur sleuth to monitor and apprehend a wanted fugitive.

Commander Jeff Forti revealed Dion Hayes - on the run since July after failing to appear in court accused of 22 child sex offences - would not be in custody had it not been for the "good job" of a member of the public, known only as Darren, who bought the fugitive's computer.

The Herald Sun exclusively revealed on Wednesday how Hayes, in his haste to flee the state, failed to deactivate his iCloud account, meaning every picture he took on his iPad while on the run automatically uploaded in real time to the computer now owned by Darren.

On Monday, the Herald Sun phoned 000 after learning Hayes had returned to Victoria, which led to his arrest at Green Lake rest area on the Western Highway.

Hayes is now in custody and will face Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday.

media_camera Darren helped in the arrest Hayes by following his pictures that were being automatically uploaded to his old computer. Picture: Ian Currie

Darren said he was left feeling frustrated when police refused to take the computer and he was asked to email each photo to investigators.

READ: How a fugitive was found

He contacted the Herald Sun after the file sizes became too large to email and he was requested to download the photos to a memory stick and drive it to the police station.

"The police put out a public appeal for help but couldn't care less when I had the information to catch him," Darren said.

media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.

Commander Forti said it was "near-on impossible" for police to monitor the computer activity as Darren had.

"The computer probably would have been sitting in a property office ... and there wouldn't be anybody sitting there live like Darren happened to be," he said.

But he admitted, with hindsight, the investigation should have been conducted differently.

"We are incredibly grateful he (Darren) was able to monitor and pick him up."

media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took of himself that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.

Darren said he saw a photo of Hayes in a Herald Sun story on a police appeal for information on the wanted man.

media_camera How he was tracked across the country.

Hayes, 39, travelled thousands of kilometres across Australia, camping out, after failing to face court on child sex charges.

media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.

Hayes' obsession with taking "selfie" photos brought him undone after the images were automatically uploaded to his old computer, allowing Darren to track him down.

Hayes had no idea the photos he was taking on his iPad were being automatically uploaded through the computing "cloud" to his old computer - a computer he had sold to Darren five days before he had been due to face court.

Recognising the man he'd bought the computer from a month before, Darren immediately contacted police.

"There was an abundance of information on this computer - I was seeing photographs drop into a folder as he took them," Darren said.

media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.

"But not only would the police not take the computer away, they wouldn't even come and pick up the photos when I put them on a memory stick - they expected me to drop them off at the station.

"I was doing all their detective work for them, but they still didn't act and go and catch him."

Darren told 3AW radio on Wednesday that police thought he was a "nuff nuff".

"I just said 'no', I know better than this. I have so much information but they just weren't interested more or less," Darren said.

media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.

"So I rang (police reporter) Jon (Kaila) at the Herald Sun and we worked as a team for the last two to three months, just communicating and trying to track this bloke".

Darren downloaded a program to calculate the co-ordinates of where each picture was taken and plotted Hayes's travels across Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia.

He also had access to the fugitive's Facebook account and messages, as his personal page had been left open on the computer.

Darren gave this information to police and then contacted the Herald Sun.

media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.

On Monday evening, Hayes posted that he was back in Victoria and had run out of fuel on the Western Highway, between Horsham and Stawell.

He sent a message to his son asking to be picked up at Green Lake rest area.

Armed with Darren's information, the Herald Sun alerted police.

And at 10pm, a stunned Hayes was arrested.

media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.

"As a result of information to police, a 39-year-old Campbellfield man was arrested 20 minutes outside Stawell on Monday evening," Sergeant Kris Hamilton said.

"Dion Hayes faced Stawell Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and was remanded to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday, where he will face 22 charges including indecent acts with a child under 16, producing child pornography and other serious child sex offences between 2003 and 2011."

Darren said he was pleased justice might finally be served.

"It's been a long process, but I just wanted to see it through to the end. It's taken over my life for the past few months. But hopefully that's the end of it now."

media_camera A photo Dion Hayes took that was automatically uploaded to his old computer.

- with Wayne Flower

jon.kaila@news.com.au