Whereabouts up in air

Kevin Polwart fled from prison on December 16. There are fears he could steal a plane. Photo / Supplied

It was a brazen daylight escape worthy of a Hollywood movie, and family of Kevin Polwart say he is smart enough to evade police for a lot longer.

Polwart, 49, escaped from Paremoremo Prison on December 16, using an angle grinder to cut through a steel fence. Since then police have learned he trained as a small plane and helicopter pilot and have not ruled out that he has already flown offshore.

With just the clothes he was wearing and a stash of chocolate bars from his cell, Polwart stopped only to leave police a taunting note on a slab of concrete before he disappeared. "Catch me if u can", he challenged his hunters, leaving a crude sketch of a rabbit.

But 15 days later, no one has seen hide nor hair of him.

In 1999, Polwart and his brother Leslie stole $600,000 from a security van in an armed robbery. They were jailed for 10 years, but in 2001 Polwart escaped from Upper Hutt's Rimutaka Prison, cutting through a fence with wire cutters.

He made his getaway in a taxi which he had ordered from inside the prison, using a cellphone. He spent 41 days on the run, during which he held up an Armourguard van to steal $60,000 in cash and cheques before he was recaptured.

A relative said Polwart was on the "wrong side of the tracks long before robbing the van".

"He built houses and was a contractor. He was good with his trade and made good money," the man said.

"He loved to fly planes, and helicopters ... He always had top-of-the-line vehicles and at one point owned a Harley. He owned jet-skis, and other expensive equipment. This was suspicious given his occupation."

The man said tax collectors were often "knocking on doors" looking for Polwart and he had "thuggish friends".

"The police don't know half of this ... the body armour he took pride in showing off to his son, the guns he kept hidden in basement garages ... the threats he made if people found out about it."

He said Polwart was never a big hunter or fisher and was never in the army so did not have specialised skills for evading capture.

"His skills are restricted to building, stealing, and hiding looted cash last time I checked."

Jean MacDonald met Polwart through the Kapiti Aero Club, where he gained his fixed-wing and helicopter licences.

"He was always a really happy-go-lucky type of guy. I quite liked him actually, I knew him quite well," she said. "He was a good worker, I haven't got anything bad to say about it."

Polwart left the club when he moved to Auckland to be closer to his children. "When he left we had a hangi for him - that's how popular he was."

MacDonald was surprised when she heard of his escape.

"That's not the Kevin I knew. It surprised me when I heard [about his convictions] because I didn't think he was the sort of person ..."

Other former friends and associates spoken to by the Herald on Sunday this week had not heard from him.

His father Frank now lives in Kawakawa after shifting from Petone in Wellington. Polwart's first stop after he escaped from Rimutaka was his parent's home for clothes. But Frank says he has not seen his son.

While on the run last time he played cat-and-mouse with police and media, calling both from a cellphone. But this time, he has not made a peep to anyone, including his children.

The officer charged with finding Polwart, North Shore Detective Senior Sergeant Kim Libby, said there was no rhyme or reason for the escape.

"We have had no communication with him. We don't know what the motive is," he said.

It was "highly unlikely" Polwart had managed to access any aircraft but Libby was not ruling it out completely.

Wherever he is heading Libby was confident Polwart would slip up soon. "We don't want any nonsense. We have a warrant for his arrest ... it is our priority to get him back."

anna.leask@hos.co.nz