A money launderer threatened to get Russian criminals to murder the police and a barrister after he jumped bail and went on the run in mainland Europe.
In one of many taunting emails mocking the criminal justice system, Nirmal Tanna attached a photograph of himself in front of the Swiss Alps, saying he had no intention of attending his trial at Leicester Crown Court, relating to £175,000 of stolen cash in his bank account.
In a brazen phone call to the court, the 39-year-old from Oadby, pretended to be a doctor who was caring for Tanna in Switzerland. However, when challenged by a member of staff, he admitted it was actually him on the phone and said he "enjoyed" wasting the court's time.
But Tanna's months on the run overseas ended on New Year's Eve, with his arrest, on a European warrant, in Marbella, southern Spain.
Having been brought back to face justice in Leicester, Tanna was on Monday jailed for five years.
Tanna was convicted by a jury last September - in his absence - of laundering money in 2012.
His two co-accused, businessmen Kevin Hollyoake and Mark Percival, both attended the trial to protest their innocence, but were also found guilty.
Sentencing Tanna, Recorder David Herbert QC said Tanna was the principal offender, "having received a large sum of money in his bank account in 2012".
He said the three men "all told elaborate lies about a bogus scrap metal deal to account for the money".
During the trial, the jury was told a genuine London business received fake instructions to change their regular payment details to another business's account, resulting in about £500,000 being stolen – of which £175,000 ended up in a bogus account called Tanna Land Investments.
The bank became suspicious and froze the account. The police discovered the cash was stolen just as the defendants prepared to falsely convince a court to lift the bank's restraining order.
Recorder Herbert said Hollyoake, of Staffordshire, and Percival, of Barwell, had "assisted" Tanna in his attempts to persuade a court to authorise the release of the stolen cash and back into his control.
Of Tanna's behaviour while on the run, Recorder Herbert told him: "You sent mocking and taunting messages to the prosecution and showed contempt for the court, the police, prosecution counsel and the proceedings in general, to disrupt the court process."
He said Tanna sent messages claiming he had met with "Russians", and making death threats.
Tanna's barrister, Mike McKeown, said his client had been suffering mental health difficulties at the time.
Mr McKeown said Tanna went on the run to Switzerland, Portugal and Spain, where he intended to look after elderly relatives. Tanna admitted jumping bail and breaching a suspended jail sentence.
