Convicted criminal Eddie Maher "I did it to protect my family"

Eddie Maher, who stole more than a million pounds from a security van in Suffolk, has claimed he did it because his family were threatened.

Maher - known as "Fast Eddie" - served 2 years of a 5 year sentence for the theft the van from outside the Lloyds Bank in Felixstowe in 1993.

The 57-year-old spent almost 20 years on the run in the US before being arrested in 2012.

Appearing on ITV's This Morning, he claimed he committed the crime because his family were threatened and "I did it to protect my family."

When questioned he claimed the police would not have been able to protect them and said he would not have done anything differently.

However Suffolk Police told ITV News Anglia that they had proved Mr Maher was not under duress when he committed the crime