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An international manhunt involving a $100,000 yacht, a Mediterranean holiday and a Mercedes-Benz has ended with an Englishman facing criminal charges in New Zealand.
Mark Norfolk has been charged with four counts of money laundering, totalling $60,000, and was denied bail in the Auckland District Court last month because he was considered a flight risk.
Last year, the 55-year-old was convicted in Greece of insurance fraud after claiming his yacht was stolen when he was sailing on the Mediterranean Sea with friends the previous year.
He left Greece and moved to New Zealand, where he bought a $120,000 yacht and a Mercedes-Benz, allegedly with the insurance payout.
Auckland detectives discovered Norfolk was living in the yacht at the West Park Marina near Hobsonville.
He was arrested at Auckland Airport as he was about leave on an overseas business trip.
Norfolk, whom police describe as a project manager working in Newmarket, is expected to be extradited to Britain for prosecution.
The tale began in May 2006, when Norfolk set sail from Hull, on England's east coast, in his 13m yacht Imagination Boston, making landfall a couple of times before travelling to Brittany in France.
After mooring the Imagination Boston, he joined friends on another boat, sailing round France and Spain, before reporting his yacht missing on his return a month later.
Norfolk received a $100,000 insurance payout in October 2006, but six months later the yacht was spotted off the coast of the Greek island of Leros, renamed Fiona Jane.
British insurance investigators found the boat was registered to a Mr Mackintosh - an alias for Norfolk - and Greek police arrested him.
At the time of the arrest, Norfolk allegedly transferred $60,000 of the insurance money to an account in New Zealand.
He was convicted of insurance fraud last year and sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years for good behaviour.
Norfolk appealed the conviction and moved to New Zealand where he bought a $120,000 yacht and a Mercedes-Benz - allegedly using insurance money from the "stolen" yacht.
West Park Marina general manager Les Rassie said Norfolk kept a low profile, paying his berth fees by credit card rather than going into the office.
One day last year, private detectives came to the marina asking for Norfolk on behalf of Interpol. Then his boat was lifted out of the water and confiscated.
Norfolk has entered no plea and is due to appear before Auckland District Court again next month.
His lawyer Paul Dacre did not return Herald on Sunday calls.
