Sussex expels fugitive student

A PhD student who skipped police bail and fled the country has been expelled from the University of Sussex almost a year after going on the run.

Erich Kofmel, a DPhil student, was arrested in May 2008 on suspicion of fraud relating to holiday lets and bailed to appear before police in September, but failed to turn up.

Mr Kofmel is wanted by the British and Swiss police and is understood to be living in Switzerland.

His expulsion was announced after a disciplinary hearing on 28 July. The university said it "judged that the prospects of legal action against Mr Kofmel being completed in the foreseeable future had diminished and it was now right to consider the disciplinary case".

For more, see: www.tinyurl.com/njp9a7.