A MODERN-DAY Raffles who escaped from a UK prison more than four years ago has been arrested in the US, it emerged today.
Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt, who likened himself to the fictional gentleman jewel thief, was picked up by US border guards in the north eastern state of Vermont after apparently entering the country from Canada.
The 33-year-old Colombian national is thought to have had at least 10 aliases and was well known for carrying out a string of thefts from luxury hotels.
Guzman-Betancourt absconded from Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey on June 6, 2005, after apparently persuading his jailers to let him out of prison for a dental appointment.
He had been sentenced to three and a half years in jail for a series of thefts from the Dorchester, the Four Seasons and the Savoy.
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