An international manhunt was launched when the banker Kieran Ashcroft fled from Ireland after being accused of obtaining almost £2 million through theft and fraud.
Detectives searched the Mediterranean after Interpol received intelligence that he was in Spain, but no trace of him was found.
Now new evidence has emerged which suggests that the fugitive may have started a new life on the tiny Hebridean island of Colonsay, population 125, which proudly describes itself as “one of the most remote communities in Britain”.
Residents knew the newcomer as “Walter Ashcroft”, an affable native of Co Cork who established himself as a builder and contractor and a popular member of the island’s golf club.
Ashcroft, a former investment adviser with Allied Irish Bank, now 63, disappeared shortly after being questioned by police in February 2004. Ireland’s director of public prosecutions decreed that he be charged with theft and fraud but a warrant for his arrest remains outstanding.
Reports from the Irish press suggest Ashcroft managed to convince about 20 individuals from the Cork area to give him sums totalling more than €2 million. He is said to have told them he was in the process of setting up his own financial institution and could help them to pay less tax by means of legal loopholes.
“Kieran was a very impressive character,” the lawyer Tim O’Leary said. “He could charm the birds off the trees. He was very persuasive.”
Residents of Colonsay, almost 20 miles away from its nearest neighbouring community, were delighted when “Walter” arrived along with his partner Gillian Mackenzie, who became head teacher at the island school, in around 2012.
“Everyone liked him,” one islander said. “He was a breath of fresh air. Walter was friendly, fun and hard working. He said he used to work in finance and was a sociable guy who bought people drinks at the hotel bar.”
“Walter” enjoyed comparing the Irish language with Scottish Gaelic and highlighting the similarities between the Highland sport of shinty and his beloved hurling. His reluctance to register with the local GP and aversion to having his picture taken was written off as harmless eccentricity.
However, an image of him teeing off appeared in The Corncrake, the island newsletter, which recorded that he had won the scratch competition during the annual golf tournament in 2018.
William Leigh Knight, a singer, music lecturer, voice coach and parish organist, commissioned Ashcroft to build his home after he moved to the island from London shortly before the pandemic.
“I knew his partner was the headmistress so I took it that he was a respectable person,” he said. “His workmanship was good and he toiled tirelessly. I trusted him implicitly. We got on very well and he was incredibly good to me during the Covid lockdowns.”
However, their relationship changed when Leigh Knight, 77, received an unexpected, and seemingly unjustified, invoice demanding £52,000. He received a “threatening” late-night call from a third party who claimed it would be in his best interests to pay immediately.
Leigh Knight refused, insisting that items he had been billed for had never arrived and work that was described as completed had not been done.
“I was really scared because I was fast running out of money,” he said. He claimed the project ultimately cost him £200,000 more than he had originally been quoted. “It has made life very difficult,” he added.
Ashcroft and his partner left the island, which is within viewing distance of Donegal, in 2022.
Leigh Knight has since learnt that more than a dozen people on the island, which boasts of being a friendly community populated by “crafters, creative entrepreneurs, home-workers and tradespeople”, had also raised concerns over Ashcroft’s workmanship and conduct.
“He certainly didn’t cover himself in glory during his time on the island, that’s for sure,” one resident said. “None had any inkling that he might be a fugitive from justice, however. He made no effort to hide his Cork accent or where he was from.”
Islanders were unequivocal when shown images of Kieran Ashcroft. “That’s ‘Walter’,” one claimed.
“He’s utterly recognisable,” Leigh Knight added.
Others suggested he had a fondness for online gambling and may have run up debts. Ashcroft’s current whereabouts are unknown but he has links to Perthshire and the Glasgow area.
A photo, posted on social media, shows “Walter” marrying his partner at the Hermitage, a beauty spot maintained by the National Trust for Scotland near the village of Birnam, in 2016.
Mackenzie, who now advertises herself as an alternative health practitioner who provides “healing for horses led by the Holy Spirit”, said she was “no longer in contact” with Ashcroft.
Further claims of fraud directed at “Walter Ashcroft” have been posted on social media. One alleged that about 15 families had been affected by him “ripping homes apart and not completing work before disappearing” in west central Scotland.
“They have been left in dire living situations and are financially ruined,” one alleged victim claims.
Reports in the Irish press suggested that Ashcroft had taken a “five-figure sum” from an organised crime figure in County Cork before he fled the country. “His associates are still on the lookout for Ashcroft,” a police source said.
Leigh Knight believes it is unlikely that his erstwhile builder will ever return to Colonsay. “If he did, people would be waiting at the pier with pitchforks,” he said.
The Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police service, confirmed that its investigation relating to Kieran Ashcroft remained active. The force is examining suggestions that he is living in Scotland under a different identity.
