Fugitive is traced to Italian job; SUSPECT WORKED AS CHEF

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), March 10, 2009

Byline: By SOPHIE DOUGHTY and LAURA CAROE

HE is one of Tyneside's most wanted fugitives and has been on the run for five years.

But suspected drug criminal Keith Golder wasn't hiding away.

The 52-year-old was working as a chef at an Italian restaurant, the Chronicle can reveal.

Since we published pictures of the 28 most-wanted criminals on Tyneside last Wednesday, it came to light that Golder, who has been wanted since 2004 for allegedly possessing illegal drugs, was working in Sam-bucas II, on North Shields Fish Quay.

The 28 are among those police would most like to catch up with and bring before the courts.

Some of them are suspected of serious offences, such as rape, child abduction and grievous bodily harm.

But PC Alan Herron, from Northumbria Police's Newcastle intelligence unit, said: "A lot of them are people that have just disappeared off the radar.

"They might still be in Newcastle and just keeping their heads down. Any one of them could be working at a pizza shop in Newcastle for all we know."

And he was not far wrong with Golder, who started working at Sambuca II the week we revealed the list.

According to workers at the Italian restaurant, he was on trial at the restaurant. But on Wednesday, he turned up to work to ask for his pay, claiming he had family problems at home. It was only once the Chronicle was out in the shops that other employees realised who Keith Golder was and why he had been so desperate to leave that day. Joun Millar, manager at Sambucas II, said: "Keith was working here but he left when he found out he was in the paper. We couldn't believe he was wanted by the police, it was a shock."

The Chronicle revealed in 1995 how Golder was made head chef of a Newcastle restaurant while doing a three-year prison sentence.

The convict was allowed out of Kirklevington Grange HM Prison, in Yarm, Stockton, during the day to work at Italian eaterie, Ciao Ciao, on Northumberland Road.

Since we published pictures of the 28, Ilgvar Murskis, who failed to turn up to court for dangerous driving, has handed himself in at a police station.

CAPTION(S):

WANTED: Keith Golder was working as a chef at Sambuca II, on North Shields Fish Quay; GALLERY: Our front page last week