Fraudster caught and jailed

Michael Brass, 45, a diving instructor from Liverpool, was located and apprehended recently in Cyprus.

Brass jumped bail and disappeared in August 2008 after being found guilty with another man at Plymouth Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The fraud involved the billing of health trusts around the country for bogus recompression treatments, listed as having been held at a hyperbaric chamber at Plymouth’s Fort Bovisand.

Between 1998 and 2002, Brass helped recruit 37 individuals, each paid up to £200 in return for personal data which was used to claim £6500 a time, totalling nearly £250,000.

Brass will now serve two years and three months. The CPS has yet to bring any action against him for his breach of bail.

David Welsh, 53, from Plymouth, a former dive centre proprietor at Fort Bovisand, started a jail term of five years and three months last year.

Both Welsh and Brass are now subject to investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act for recovery of the fraud's proceeds.

A third man, Andrew Walker, 56, a former director of the dive centre run by Welsh, admitted before trial to conspiring to defraud, but maintained that he did not benefit from it.

Walker escaped jail but received a sentence of two years, suspended for 12 months.