ONE OF Britain’s previously most wanted fugitives has been sentenced to six years and six months imprisonment in Spain for drugs, firearms and road traffic offences.

Andrew Moran, 31, of Wellbeck Grove, Higher Broughton, Salford, was given the sentence in Madrid after pleading guilty to the offences that took place in Spain whilst he was on the run in the country and was wanted by Lancashire Police.

Moran, who had been wanted since 2009, was arrested on Friday 10 May 2013 after a raid at a luxury villa in the Calpe area of Alicante. Two handguns, 60 rounds of ammunition and a machete were recovered.

In May 2005 Moran and his criminal associate, 29-year-old Stephen Devalda, held up a Royal Mail van outside Asda in Colne, Lancashire. A handgun, machete and baseball bat were used during the £25,000 raid in which a security guard was injured.

Moran was later arrested but it was during his trial at Burnley Crown Court in February 2009 that he assaulted four security guards, vaulted over the dock and escaped. He was subsequently convicted in his absence of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

A joint operation was launched by TITAN (the North West Crime Regional Unit), the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Spanish national police to locate him. He was traced but when Spanish officers went to arrest him, he crashed his car into them and made off in his vehicle.

He was then caught following the raid in May 2013.

Stephen Devalda was jailed at Preston Crown Court in November 2011 for nine years and eight months for conspiracy to commit robbery and seven months for breaching bail.

After servicing his sentence in Spain, Moran will be produced back to the UK where he will be sentenced for the armed robbery and also for escaping from lawful custody.