A convicted armed robber from Merton who went on the run from prison for more than a decade is facing extradition from Spain after being arrested.

Francis William Webb, who was on Crimestoppers' Most Wanted hitlist, was arrested by Spanish police on Tuesday, February 10, after going on the run in 2001.

Webb, of Orchard Avenue, Mitcham, was handed a 14-year jail term in 1997 at Maidstone Crown Court after admitting to five bank raids in Croydon.

He admitted five robberies and five charges of having a firearm or imitation firearm with intent between January 1995 and April 1996.

The robberies were at the same two branches of the Halifax, formerly the Leeds building society, in Croydon.

Wielding a handgun inside a carrier bag the raids are said to have netted him £7,000 after terrified cashiers were ordered to hand over £50 notes.

The Metropolitan Police said a European Arrest Warrant was issued after Webb was temporarily released from the former HMP Latchmere House in Richmond, on compassionate grounds in 2001but he went missing.

The 60-year-old, who also goes under the name Graham Jones, is now facing extradition back to the UK.

A Civil Guard statement said he fled the UK using someone else's passport and, under the same assumed name, lived undetected for a decade in the village of Turis, 25 miles inland from the east coast city of Valencia.

The fugitive was picked up by judicial police at a nearby rural cottage and brought to the National Court in Madrid for an extradition hearing, the statement added.