A MAN wanted in connection with a bank robbery in Felixstowe 19 years ago will today appear before a Suffolk court for the first time.

Eddie Maher will appear at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court to face charges connected to the theft of �1million from Lloyds Bank in Hamilton Road, after being extradited from America.

The 56-year-old is wanted for questioning over the theft of �1m from a security van outside Lloyds Bank in Felixstowe in 1993. The former Securicor guard is expected to arrive at a London airport in the early hours of today before being detained and brought to Suffolk to appear at the Elm Street, Ipswich, court.

On May 13 Maher was released into the custody of the US immigration service after a court agreed to a joint motion to transfer him.

A spokesman for Suffolk police said: “Suffolk police can today, Tuesday 10 July, confirm that a man who has been wanted by Suffolk police since 1993 in relation to a security van theft has been deported from the United States and is due to appear before Ipswich Magistrates’ Court today charged with theft.”

It is alleged that when Maher was working as a Securicor guard in 1993, his colleague entered the bank in Felixstowe, returning to find Maher and the money had vanished.

Maher, his common-law wife Deborah Brett and three-year-old son Lee were never seen again.

Suffolk detectives have been wanting to speak to Maher, formerly of South Woodham Ferrers, near Chelmsford, in connection with the incident for 19 years.