A European arrest warrant has been issued for a couple from Falmouth.

Peter Giffard, age 49 from Budock Water, Falmouth and Penelope Lawton, age 52 also from Budock Water were both convicted in their absence of fraud.

They are convicted of obtaining more than £600,000 by way of fraudulent mortgages.

The fraud spanned a period of five years between 2002 and 2007 when, between them, the couple applied for mortgage funds totalling £1.6 million.

The pair were each found guilty of mortgage fraud at Truro Crown Court in January 2016 following a trial in their absence.  Both were sentenced to three years in prison.

In April 2016 Peter Giffard was also found guilty of money laundering and was sentenced to six years (to run consecutively with his three year sentence).

The couple have two children age 17 and 15 who they are thought to be travelling with.  Police believe they may have travelled to Egypt.