The runaway company boss has spent hours wandering the shopping malls dotted across the

Bulgarian capital, spending a fortune over the months at high-end designer boutiques.

The Serdika Centre, a 20-minute walk from the home owned by Clive Palmer’s parents-in- law Alexander and Stilyana Sokolov, has been a regular destination for Mensink, who made several purchases at the Peek and Cloppenburg department store, a German department store chain similar to David Jones in Australia.

The newly svelte fugitive has overhauled his wardrobe since moving to Bulgaria, and on July 7, he spent $903 at the up-market Italian sportswear store Paul and Shark in the Serdika Centre.

Minutes later, he dropped another $547 at the Porsche boutique, which sells clothes and accessories branded with the famous car logo.

Paul and Shark seemed to be a favourite — Mensink spent $2326 there on another visit on July 20.

RELATED: Fugitive boss busted hiding in paradise

The next day, July 21, he was back at the Serdika Centre, where he spent $800 at Peek and

Cloppenburg.

His Westpac credit card, paid off monthly with the $4000 a week his uncle Clive Palmer is paying him during his self-imposed exile from Australia, was also put through its paces at the Paradise Centre, a mall closer to the home Mensink shares with his striking Bulgarian girlfriend Gabriela Konstantinova.

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

Favoured by the gangsters, racketeers and political powerbrokers who flourished in Bulgaria after the communist ouster in 1989, the Paradise Centre is similar to a large suburban mall in Australia, with ubiquitous chains including Zara, H & M, Pandora, a Costa Coffee outlet and a food court on the top floor.

On a day when News Corp visited just before Christmas, two bodyguards in black suits with earpieces waited outside the Versace boutique while their boss shopped inside, following him at a distance down the escalator as he left.

On July 30, in clothing store Morrigans, Mensink scored a bargain, spending $113 on a pair of men’s Ted Baker pants in their largest size, XL. It cost him 146 in the local currency, Bulgarian levs.

The same day, he also went shopping at Skiny, an underwear and pyjama shop, where he spent $109 buying men’s and women’s clothes at 7.40pm on a Sunday night.

A woman who works at a jewellery boutique in the Paradise Centre told News Corp she recognised photographs of Mensink taken in Australia before his makeover, and believed he came to the mall about once a week.

“He comes in regularly. He has glasses, he is skinnier and he has a beard,’’ the woman said.

“He has a Bulgarian girlfriend. I am 78 per cent certain it is him.’’

Mensink was seen in the mall for the Black Friday sales on November 24.

During his four-day road-trip to Greece from May 5-8, Mensink went shopping in Athens, and spent $494 on purchases at fashion designer Gianni Versace.

On his return to Bulgaria, he went straight back to the Serdika Centre on May 9, buying $122 worth of goods at big electronics retailer Technopolis, then spending an eye-watering $3353 at the Porsche boutique, and $764 at fashion chain Scandal.

He went back the next day to Technopolis and spent another $2868.

On May 13, Mensink was at it again, spending $654 at sportswear shop Puma in the Paradise Centre. This time, he bought three pairs of men’s shoes and two pairs of shorts — one large, one in extra-large.

However, he seems to have avoided the Vitosha Boulevard, Sofia’s lengthy pedestrian street, where locals and tourists alike go to shop and eat.

He used his credit card to make two $1500 cash advance withdrawals.

He bought $121 worth of items from jeweller Swarovski at the Paradise Centre on August 6, and spent another $1484 at the high-end shoe retailer designer Pepina in Saborna Street, Sofia, on August 2.

HOME IS WHERE THE HEAT ISN’T

Unlike Mensink, his girlfriend Ms Konstantinova has a job.

The pair have been going out at night after she has returned to her flat, walking to another, smaller shopping mall called the Park Centre, near the Hilton Hotel.

Last week, they attended the Cine Grand movie cinema there twice in seven days.

Mensink has also gone shopping at the Mall of Sophia, and made purchases in the designer shops in the tourist precinct on the streets behind the historic Hotel Balkan in the heart of the city.

Bulgaria is not an obvious European Union country for a runaway Australian company boss to go into exile.

Its population has fallen from nine million in 1990 to just over seven million now, as its young people seek better wages and living conditions elsewhere in Europe. Away from the hotels and some shops, English is not widely spoken. The winters are harsh, with temperatures regularly below -10 degrees.

But Mensink has connections there through the parents of Clive Palmer’s second wife, Anna Topalov.

And relaxed border security may have proved helpful.

Mensink has no work rights in Bulgaria, and theoretically can stay in the country without a visa only for 90 days in every six months. He may be able to get a new visa every time he returns to the country however, allowing him to live there permanently.

Additional reporting: Milena Hristova