A 33-YEAR-OLD fraudster who went on the run from Gloucester Crown Court for 20 months has been finally jailed after being arrested in Newcastle for assaulting a woman in the city.

Phillip Gregory, formerly of Eastbourne, but now of Llys Madoc, Towyn, North Wales, was charged with fraud after he lied in an application for a business phone contract at Vodafone in Cirencester, on May 8 2017.

He was due to attend a court hearing in October 2018 but he gave an array of excuses for not attending, which included his taxi letting him down to take him to the train station and then a claim that he did not have enough money to travel to Gloucester for the relisted hearing.

A warrant for his arrest was issued by Judge Ian Lawrie QC later that month, but then no more was heard of Gregory till he was arrested last month on Tyneside.

Prosecutor Janine Wood told the Court that Gregory allegedly punched a woman in the face in Newcastle city centre on January 17 this year and knocked her unconscious.

She added: “Gregory was arrested by police and taken into custody for the alleged offence when it was realised he was a wanted man.

“He duly appeared at York Crown Court thee days later and pleaded guilty to the fraud case and failing to surrender to Gloucester Crown Court on October 22, 2018. The judge remanded him in custody until his case could be listed at this court.”

The prosecutor explained that Gregory, using an alias, tried to fraudulently obtain a mobile phone from Vodafone in Cirencester by setting up a business contract on May 8, 2017.

Mrs Wood added: “However an observant sales manager recognised the man who had tried something similar before in the Gloucester store in January of that year.

“Gregory wanted a Samsung Galaxy mobile phone and a lot of data as part of the contract. The manager told Gregory that she needed to speak to a colleague in the office and left him in the company of a sales assistant who was told to keep him talking.

“The woman phoned the police and told the call handler that he was fraudulently using an alias. The police arrived very quickly and interviewed him. Gregory was later charged with fraudulently trying to obtain a mobile phone.”

Steve Young defending said: “Gregory is a photographer and was travelling through Cirencester on the date in question having been on location in the area at the time.

“He went into the Vodafone store as he was short of money with the aim of obtaining a mobile phone and to sell it on.

“There is a long history of him failing to attend court with an array of explanations given. The gap in time between his non appearance in court and his arrest is significant.

“He has been in custody for a couple of weeks and he is desperate to return to his family.”

Judge Rose said to Gregory: “You started digging a hole for yourself a couple of years ago in failing to turn up to court. But as the months and years have gone by you’ve kept on digging and here you are, finally in the dock.

“You have been in prison some 19 days. You are the author of your own misfortune as you cleared off having decided to do nothing about your obligations to this court.

“The irony is that your fraudulent activity might not have attracted a prison sentence.

"You pleaded guilty to fraud and I feel that most judges would not be considering a prison sentence at all.

"But added to the failing to surrender charge, things are different.

“You have frustrated the course of justice by failing to surrender for such a long period of time. This is very serious.”

The judge jailed Gregory for 37 days. He also imposed a victim surcharge of £140.