Aussie arrested in Cambodia seven years after jumping bail in Brisbane

Guido James Eglitis, a 68-year-old man from Victoria, was arrested in Cambodia on Friday. The Cambodian police have released a photograph of him after the arrest, which comes seven years after he failed to appear before the court for trial while he was out on bail. He had been charged with kidnapping a businessman in 2007.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian authorities had knowledge of his whereabouts in Cambodia for months but no effort had been made to bring him back to Brisbane and restart the trial against him.

According to Cambodian media site The Phnom Penh Post, Eglitis was arrested along with Brett Michael Hastie, a 44-year-old New Zealander, on Friday by Cambodian police. The arrests were reportedly made near the temple of Angkor Wat. According to Siem Reap deputy provincial police chief Chao Maovireak, the two were reported to the police by a British national David Scotcher, 66, who alleged that the duo had assaulted and robbed him.

Maovireak added that according to the complaint lodged by Scotcher, the two men broke into his house on Sep. 29 and stole his camera and passport.

Eglitis has been involved in different kinds of crimes for as long as 30 years and has also been mentioned in a book titled “Scams and Swindlers.”

Back in 2007, a Brisbane court had directed him to a higher court for trial on charges of kidnapping, robbery, deprivation of liberty, possessing restricted items and impersonating a police officer. According to the Australian police, Eglitis had held a businessman from Queensland for ransom by disguising as a police officer.

The Aussie fugitive came under the radar of Australian authorities when the decomposed body of Canadian journalist Dave Walker was discovered near the Angkor Wat temple last year, and Eglitis had posed as a private investigator for the Cambodian police. The Australian Federal Police was probing the case along with Canadian investigators at that time.

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