Tony Taylor to appear in Brighton court today

The Irish investment broker Mr Tony Taylor, whose whereabouts have been unknown since his disappearance in August 1996, was arrested yesterday in Eastbourne, East Sussex. He is to appear in Brighton Magistrates Court this morning.

Mr Taylor was arrested on foot of 15 extradition warrants relating to charges of fraudulent conversion of money entrusted to him by clients of his investment business. The warrants concern the Society of St Vincent de Paul and other named investors and the total involved is approximately £620,000 (€849,670).

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, working with the UK police, managed to trace Mr Taylor to Eastbourne during the past three weeks. Yesterday morning, Det Sgt Willie McGee, who was leading the investigation into Mr Taylor's disappearance, travelled to the UK to oversee the broker's arrest.

Mr Taylor had been living for some time, possibly since soon after his disappearance, in a rented detached house on Wrestwood Avenue, Eastbourne, with his wife Shirley. The couple had been using the name Taylor but Mr Taylor is understood to have adopted a new first name. An English detective constable arrested Mr Taylor at his home on the middleclass, residential street at 3.30 p m . Mr Taylor agreed that he was the person named in the warrants but otherwise said very little.

His appearance was not much changed apart from the fact that he has grown thinner and has more grey in his hair. He was held in Brighton police station last night. It is not known if Mr Taylor intends to contest his extradition.

Eastbourne is a quiet, seaside town with a population of 80,000. It is popular as a holiday destination and as a retirement home location.

Investors who placed funds with Mr Taylor are believed to have lost more than £2 million though it is not thought that Mr Taylor had significant funds with him at the time of his disappearance. His group of investment companies, Taylor Asset Management, went into liquidation after his disappearance.

The Garda suspect that Mr Taylor may have been running an investment business, over the Internet, while he was in Eastbourne. They established that Mr Taylor was spending a lot of time on the Internet but have not yet identified any company which he might have been operating under.

Chief Supt Felix McKenna of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigations said tracing Mr Taylor was a priority for the bureau and had been achieved through the use of electronic surveillance and detective work. He would not elaborate. Mr Taylor had been traced to Eastbourne in recent weeks. He said the Garda had been assisted by Scotland Yard and police in other jurisdictions.

The Irish Brokers' Association (IBA) issued a statement saying it welcomed the arrest and detention of Mr Taylor. "The IBA hopes that Mr Taylor will be returned to this jurisdiction to answer all queries and charges which may be laid against him. His absence for the last three years since the collapse of the Taylor group has left many questions unanswered. Mr Taylor has reneged on his responsibilities to his clients and some of them have lost very substantial sums of money. Mr Taylor must be held accountable for his actions."

The association said that "as a statement of principle", it believes it is imperative that all wrongdoers are brought to justice. "They must face the full rigours of the law. The system must be seen to work, demonstrating that nobody is beyond the law. IBA has, and will continue to offer, whatever assistance it can to ensure that Mr Taylor and any others are held accountable for their actions." Mr Taylor was founding president of the IBA.

The Society of St Vincent de Paul invested £185,000 (€253,530) with Mr Taylor, money which had been intended for Sunshine Homes, a holiday centre in north Dublin run by the society and used by children from poorer areas of Dublin city.