A FORMER company boss has been sentenced to six years in jail - but police don't know where he is.
Leeds Crown Court was told that Christopher Woodhead used aggressive sales techniques and scare tactics to con elderly and vulnerable people across West Yorkshire out of their savings.
But police have yet to track him down.
He was sentenced in his absence after a Department of Trade and Industry probe.
Woodhead was also banned from being a director for 12 years. He was ordered to pay £428,000 in compensation within 12 months or serve an extra three years in prison.
Woodhead - who used a postal address in Pepper Road, Hunslet, Leeds - ran a number of companies, including Sealpoint and the Midland Coating Company, selling outside wall coating products.
The court was told clients were charged thousands of pounds for products they often did not need.
The profits paid for Woodhead's lavish lifestyle.
The department's inquiry led to the compulsory winding-up in February, 2000, of a string of firms owned by Woodhead.
The Serious Fraud Office prosecuted Woodhead after the DTI passed the case to the West Yorkshire Police.
Sealpoint and associated firms sold masonry coatings to home owners in northern England and the East Midlands.
The firms ran a large phone sales department from a base in Leeds, cold-calling people to arrange home visits by staff.
The firms employed inexperienced sales staff and gave them just one week's training to carry out property surveys.
