The arrest of Graham Potter means these criminals are now Australia’s most wanted
After the capture of Australia’s most wanted man Graham Potter, these are the next biggest targets for law enforcement agencies.
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Fugitive Graham Potter evaded authorities for 12 years before being arrested in a shack in Far North Queensland this week.
Known as Australia’s most wanted man, Potter’s high-profile arrest attracted national and international attention.
His capture meant other fugitives have moved up one position in the most wanted rankings.
These are some of the biggest criminals with ties to Australia who remain on the run from law enforcement agencies.
PHILIP JEPSON EGGLISHAW
Nationality: British
Date of birth: 28/08/1953
Distinguishing marks and characteristics: Receding hairline, balding, moustache.
Height: 1.75 metres
Weight: 80 kilograms
Hair colour: Black
Eye colour: Blue
Crimes: Philip Egglishaw, 68, is wanted over one of Australia’s largest tax evasion and
Known as the ‘Bowler Hat Englishman’, Egglishaw was the alleged mastermind of a $2.2bn evasion rort that fleeced high-profile Australians including Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan out of $34 million.
The fraudster was living large until 2004 when the Australian Federal Police raided his luxury hotel room in Melbourne following a long-running tax evasion investigation known as Project Wickenby.
Among the items seized was Egglishaw’s laptop which contained vital information leading to the convictions of 46 people involved in the tax cheat.
They included renowned music boss, the late Glenn Wheatley.
While his co-offenders went down, Egglishaw managed to stay hidden for 13 years.
While he was eventually arrested while trying to cross the border from Switzerland to Italy in 2017, he managed to slip away again after being released from jail due to a failed prosecution attempt.
ANTHONY PHILLIP SITAR
Date of birth: 28/11/1979
Place of birth: Albury, Australia
Height: 1.87 metres
Colour of hair: Black
Colour of eyes: Brown
Crimes: After 14 kilograms of pure cocaine was found hidden inside beer bottles imported to Melbourne from Mexico in 2011, several men were arrested – but Anthony Sitar, 42, made a quick escape.
Police allege that Sitar, who was the co-owner of Chapel St’s Destino Latin Bar, was involved in an international drug syndicate in which police seized 138 kilograms of pure ice, 15 kilograms of cocaine and 13 firearms in Melbourne in 2011.
His business was a joint consignee on the shipment of ‘beer’ received at the ports in October that year which was intercepted by border officials.
Sitar, who managed to get away early, faces high-level drug importation offences if ever found.
PUNEET PUNEET
Nationality: Indian
Date of Birth: 07/01/1989
In 2008, fugitive killer driver Puneet Puneet, 33, hit and killed 19-year-old student Dean Hoftsee while drunk and speeding at Southbank.
Experts estimated at the time of the accident that Puneet was driving at 148 km/h in a 60km/h zone while three times the legal limit.
Puneet was granted bail on strict conditions, including the surrender of his Indian passport.
After failing to attend his August 2009 court hearing in Melbourne, authorities later discovered Puneet fled Australia in June that year using the passport of another Indian student.
In March 2011, Puneet pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was convicted and sentenced to 2.5 years imprisonment.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle’s comment in which he called Puneet a “maggot” for fleeing Australia has been used by the fugitive in his final desperate bid to dodge justice in Australia.
Puneet has used a list of claims during the eight years he has spent trying to avoid paying
for his crimes.
Puneet was taken into custody in India in September 2021 and the extradition process is ongoing.
THI MINH PHUNG DUONG
Nationality: Australian
Date of birth: 02/09/1960
Crimes: Vietnamese authorities have accused Thi Minh Phung Duong, 61, of being a property swindler in Vietnam.
She has been at large for more than a decade.
BRADY HAMILTON
Nationality: Australian
Date Of Birth: 18/3/1968
Height: 185cm
Build: Medium
Hair colour: Ginger
Brady Hamilton, 53, has been on the run for over 20 years over his alleged involvement in the bashing murder of a man in the Sydney suburb Erskine Park in August 1999.
Police said his co-accused was sentenced to 16 years in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter over the killing.
The former member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang is described as caucasian with a fair complexion and a heavily tattooed chest.
A warrant was issued for his arrest in 2001. He is on the list of fugitives police are still on the hunt for as part of Operation Roam, which first launched in 2011 in an effort to locate Australia’s most wanted with the help of the public via social media platforms.
JONATHAN ROBERT SIMMONS
Nationality: Australian
Date of birth: 06/12/1981
Height: 170cm
Build: medium
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
More than $58,000 was stolen from a collection of people by Jonathan Robert Simmons, 36, in 2014 after the fraudster claimed he would develop a website to “assist punters”, detectives say.
Police have said Simmons had promised to help gamblers by giving them the inside running during the Spring of 2014.
He is believed to have fled interstate the following year as SA Police closed in.
He remains one of the state’s most-wanted fugitives for a range of serious crimes.
He is being hunted down for 10 deception offences in Adelaide which authorities allege occurred between September 17, 2014 and November 5 in the same year in Adelaide.
Records show he was due to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on May 5, 2016, where a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The 41-year old is believed to have used a number of aliases including Tristian Simmons, John Robert Griffiths and John Simmons.
JAMES DALAMANGAS
Nationality: Dual Australian/Greek national
Date Of Birth: 12/10/1970
Height: 180-185cm
Build: Medium
Hair Colour: Black
Eye colour: Brown
Crimes: James Dalamangas is accused of the stabbing murder of Sydney man George
Giannopoulos at a nightclub in Belmore, in Sydney’s southwest, in April 1999.
Giannopoulos, who was 32 when he died, was stabbed after he intervened in a bar dispute.
A $200,000 reward is available for information that may lead to his arrest.
In July 2021, an Anom operation codenamed Ironside handed 25 million messages to the
FBI and the Australian Federal Police. The operation saw a number of criminals overseas – including Dalamangas who was in hiding in Greece at the time – relocate in the wake of learning that their encrypted chats had been monitored by cops.
PAUL STEADMAN
Date of birth: 01/28/1968
Height: 175cm
Build: medium
Hair colour: Black
Eye colour: Brown
Crimes: Paul Brent Steadman, 54, failed to appear at a Bathurst Local Court after he was charged with offences related to the sexual assault of an underage boy in Bathurst in 2015, resulting in a warrant being issued for his arrest.
Steadman was working as a karate instructor in the Bathurst area at the time.
His vehicle was later located in bushland, but he has never been found.
Police believe he has left the Bathurst area but are also considering the possibility that he is deceased.
SHAN LIAN QIU
Nationality: Australian
Date of birth: 03/06/1982
Crimes: Shan Lian Qiu, the former director of designer fashion chain Gasp, is accused
by China of serious drug smuggling allegations.
In 2020 the Herald Sun revealed that Qiu was believed to be hiding in plain sight in
Melbourne, with previous addresses including a multimillion-dollar mansion in Brighton.
Legal documents show Qiu had attempted to take on a major bank over a property dispute in recent years.
The documents made no attempt to conceal her identity, despite the international target on her head.
Little is known about the allegations she faces in China. She left the country for Australia in the early 2000s.
MELIAD FARAH
Date of birth: 05/11/1980
Nationality: Australian
Crimes: Aussie-born terrorist, Meliad Farah, 41, is wanted in Bulgaria over a bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and their driver in 2012.
In 2020, a Bulgarian court found Farah and his co-accused, Hassan El Hajj Hassan, guilty of helping Lebanese-French terrorist, Mohamad Hassan El-Husseini, plant the deadly bomb.
The pair were sentenced to life in prison but remain at large.
The terror attack, which occurred outside an airport, was linked to the militant group Hezbollah. It has denied involvement.
Farah and Hassan are thought to have entered Bulgaria using fake ID documents and fled soon after the bombing.
ABDULZAGIR MEDJIDOV
Nationality: Russian/Australian
Date of birth: 09/07/1970
Crimes: Abdulzagir Medjidov, 51, fled after being accused of extremely serious crimes in
Russia, including allegations of attempted murder and preparing for a crime.
Medjidov has managed to stay under the radar for quite some time.
Photos posted of him on the Interpol website show him as a young man, including an image of him wearing an ‘AUS’ T-shirt in the bush.
TRINH THI HOA TRUNG
Nationality: Vietnamese
Date of birth: 27/05/1970
Height 1.55 metres
Weight: 62 kilograms
Hair colour: Black
Eye colour: Dark
Crimes: Trinh Thi Hoa Trung, 51, who recently made the Interpol red notice list, has been accused of abusing trust in order to appropriate property in her home country.
She has short hair, wears glasses and speaks Vietnamese, Chinese and English.
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