Sign the bail forms and do a runner

Crimestoppers has named Britain's 10 most wanted fraudsters, writes Peter Rhodes.

You can't help noticing that at least half of them, involved in scams totalling more than £200 million, have slipped through the remarkably leaky sieve that is the English bail system.

Two absconded before or during their trials, two failed to answer bail and one decided not to turn up at court.

Who seriously imagined that a Mr Big, especially one with a foreign name and probably a foreign passport, would hang around to be banged up in Strangeways when he could be relaxing by the pool a thousand miles away?