Stephen Devalda, 28 arrested in March this year outside a hotel on the Costa del Sol.

JUSTICE finally caught up with a robber who fled the country while on trial for an armed raid in Colne.

Stephen Devalda, 28, has confessed to conspiring to rob a Royal Mail security van near the town’s Asda store in 2005.

The robbery involved a security guard having a gun held to his head, while he was beaten with a machete and forced to hand over £25,000.

But Devalda skipped bail before his Burnley Crown Court trial and was only arrested in March this year outside a hotel on the Costa del Sol.

Yesterday he appeared before Judge Norman Wright and pleaded guilty to two conspiracy to rob charges.

He was remanded in custody, for pre-sentence reports to be prepared, and will next appear in court on September 30.

Devalda was caught as a result of Operation Gulf, a combined initiative involving law enforcement agencies in the UK and Spain.

Detectives from the Serious Organised Crime Agency and Greater Manchester Police snared the Salford-born robber in Marbella.

He had been travelling between Thailand and the Costa del Sol on a false passport when he was detained.

The same operation also saw the capture in Amsterdam of his younger brother Sean, who was also on the run for armed robbery.

Police are still hunting one of Stephen Devalda’s accomplices, Andrew Moran, who was convicted of his involvement in the Colne raids but fled before he could be sentenced.

Det Insp Simon Cheyte, of Lancashire Police, when Devalda was arrested, said: “We have worked incredibly hard, not only here in Lancashire, but with our colleagues across the globe in order to trace him.”