A FRAUDSTER on wanted lists all over the world is still on the run more than a year after being convicted of distributing card skimming devices across the globe from a Colchester shed.

Alexandru Sovu designed devices and false ATM fronts which were then sold to criminals in New York, Jamaica, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Ghana and the Philippines.

Crooks would then be able to access card details from unsuspecting people using the machines and gain access to their accounts and funds.

The illegal hardware was constructed in a garden in Harwich Road, Colchester.

As well as designing the machines, Sovu also encrypted the devices so that customers would have to pay for a software before they could gain access to all the card details.

Sovu was convicted in February last year of fraud charges but failed to show for the last week of his trial after absconding.

He was jailed for 11 years in his absence but is still on the run.

The fugitive has still not been tracked down by authorities.

At the end of the trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in London last year, Judge Rajeev Shetty said Sovu, 40, had made him not want to use a cash machine.

He said: “I know for one that I will never use an ATM machine again with such confidence.

“Sovu is likely to be sentenced for a long time when he is caught.

“He is a man on wanted lists all over the world.”

Sovu split his time between Reading in Berkshire and Beijing when the scam was at its height.

He is believed to have fled to Asia via Eastern Europe on a private plane when he absconded from the trial.

It has been reported by The Sun on Sunday that Sovu was able to claim £61,000 in legal aid despite not turning up for the end of his trial and going on the run.

The illegal operation was estimated to be worth £3million.