Family of £1.3m fugitive found after 19 years vow to follow him when he is sent back to Britain
Wife pledges to follow him to UK if he's extradited
By Daniel Bates
The family of the British man arrested in the U.S. after 19 years on the run are to join him in the UK when he is extradited home, the Daily Mail can reveal.
‘Fast’ Eddie Maher’s wife Deborah and their two sons said they had to move because their lives in America have been ‘frozen’ as they are effectively illegal immigrants.
His son Lee revealed that the change will be especially hard for him as he is an ‘All American male’ who served in the U.S. military and only knows Britain through films like ‘Snatch’.
The 22-year-old also told for the first time of the moment when his father revealed that everything he knew about himself was a lie - and that he was really born in Dagenham, East London.
Maher was arrested earlier this week after allegedly being on the run since January 1993 over the theft of £1.3million from the Securicor van he was driving through Felixstowe, Suffolk.
Now living in a modest £40,000 home in the semi-rural backwater of Ozark, Missouri, he was charged with being an illegal alien in possession of two rifles and pistols.
Any sign of his ‘fortune’ has long gone - by the time he declared bankruptcy in November 2010 he had just £54 in his bank account.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Mr Brett, 22, gave the most in-depth account so far of his on the run with his father, mother Deborah Brett and 14-year-old brother.
He said their illusion fell apart on Wednesday night when Maher finally told them the truth - and that he was called Lee Brett, not Lee King as he had always known himself.
Maher, 56, said his son that he had not in fact been born in New Hampshire and showed him his British birth certificate for the first time with the words: ‘This is you’
Mr Brett said: ‘It blew my mind. I still can’t get my head around it. All my life I’ve been Lee King, that’s all I’ve known.
‘Now it turns out I was born in Britain and I have second birth certificate’.
He added: ‘My parents lied to me but they have had their reasons. Of course I wish it had not happened but it has. There is nothing I can do about it and there’s no point getting angry.
‘What has happened does not change my opinion of my dad. One stupid mistake is not going to change the fact he was always there for me and would do anything for me.’
Mr Brett said that when he was younger his father worked for Nielsen ratings agency and claimed he had to move around a lot because he was always getting promoted.
He used to take Mr Brett elk hunting and, despite being British, bonded with his son over their shared love of American football, wrestling and baseball.
But all that will now have to change - as Mr Brett was born in Britain, it effectively means he has been living illegally in the US his whole life, as has his mother.
Mr Brett said: ‘I can’t work here, my life is frozen and I can’t do anything.
‘We’ve decided to move to England as it’s the best thing to do. We just want to be with Dad and things are as to stay here will be really complicated.
‘I don’t know anything about England and all I know is from films like Snatch and The Italian Job.
‘It’s dreary, there is actual history and people drive on the left in England, that’s about it, I have no other preconceptions.’
He added: ‘I don’t know how I’ll adjust because I’m an all-American man and I’ ve always thought of myself that way. I’ve wrestled, played American football, I love baseball and I served in the military.
‘The only time I’ve been out of the U.S. was when I served in Afghanistan. I’ve worked as a fireman here so maybe I can do that in England’.
Maher appeared calm during his brief appearance in federal court in Springfield, Missouri on Thursday.
He is in the custody of U.S. marshals and has been scheduled for a preliminary hearing on February 22.
FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said federal officials do not know what happened to the money Maher allegedly stole.
Suffolk Police have said they plan to extradite him.
