Sarah Panitzke, 47, was arrested in Spain as she walked her dogs for laundering £1bn of illicit money through offshore bank accounts as part of a mobile phone VAT scam.

Panitzke, originally from Barcelona, was detained in Santa Barbara, Tarragona by the Spanish Guardia Civil as part of an operation supported by HMRC. She has now appeared in court and has been placed in custody as extradition proceedings begin.

Panitzke became a part of a huge criminal organisation which specialised in high-value fraud and involved multiple different companies that bought mobile phones from VAT free European countries and then sold them in the UK for a big profit.