A CONVICTED Bradford swindler has been arrested and brought to court 16 years after he went on the run.

A man police believe to be Robert Bowman, the so-called TV conman, was apprehended in the South of England on Wednesday and transported back to West Yorkshire.

He has since made three appearances before the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, before being transferred from Leeds Prison to Lynfield Mount Hospital in Bradford on Friday afternoon.

The man initially accepted at Bradford Crown Court that he was Robert Bowman.

But after admitting being in breach of his bail, he then told his barrister that he was not the wanted fraudster and claimed to be Andrew Walker with a different date of birth.

Judge Thomas said: “We will work on the basis that he is Robert Bowman.”

Bowman, formerly of Towngate, Wyke, was 28 when he disappeared in 2001 before he could be sentenced for a scam aimed at getting money from the estates of dead people.

Bowman had pleaded guilty to two conspiracies when he jumped bail before he could be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court in September, 2001.

He was alleged to have fled with a large amount of money from a bank account supposed to have been frozen by the authorities.

An accomplice, from Bradford, was sentenced to a 180-hour community punishment order for his role in the “Christian Bookshop” Bible scam and another con involving satellite television cards.

Leeds Crown Court heard in 2001 how the duo had sent out hundreds of letters to solicitors acting for deceased clients suggesting that money was owed for Bibles and another religious book.

The pair were said to have scoured the London Gazette - a legal journal which published death notices - in order to find potential victims.

Bowman was arrested last week by Devon and Cornwall police outside a Sainsbury’s store on Torquay Road in Newton Abbott, a market town on the River Teign in the Teignbridge district of Devon.

Bowman spent a night in Leeds prison before being seen by two doctors in the cells at Bradford Crown Court.

Both told Judge Thomas that Bowman, who was tearful and agitated in the dock, was suffering from a mental illness.

Bowman, who wore a green round neck jumper for his short appearances before the court, was said to be weeping and incoherent in the prison cells.

The judge made an interim Hospital Order and bailed Bowman to the care of Lynfield Mount Hospital.

The case was adjourned until Friday, April 28, for Bowman to be treated.

During that time, further enquiries will also be made about the case.

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