A FUGITIVE fraudster on the run in two countries has secretly tried to sell her home.

Runaway thief Veronica Crouth's house in Cramlington, Northumberland, was due to be sold by auction at a guide price of £245,000 to £285,000.

However, estate agent Keith Pattinson said: "We have contacted the owner abroad, who has said he is the sole owner and wants to sell.

"We have put the house auction on hold while further inquiries are made with his solicitors."

An international police hunt is continuing for Crouth, more than a year after she skipped bail in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Tyneside doctors at the University Medical Centre, Claremont Road, Newcastle, who were defrauded in 1995 of almost £30,000, are still awaiting compensation for Crouth's crimes.

She vanished while awaiting trial for a £200,000 scam at a doctors' practice in the Far East.

Solicitors for the Newcastle doctors applied successfully for an order requiring that no dealing in the house and land could be made without the victims being informed. However, it is understood that order has now lapsed.

Her whereabouts are not known, but sources say she may be living in Spain.

After Crouth, 57, failed to turn up in Hong Kong on January 17 last year for trial on the £200,000 theft charge, a judge issued a warrant for her arrest.

She had been jailed for 15 months at Newcastle Crown Court in 1996 for stealing more than £25,000 from the Newcastle city centre UMC practice.

The court heard she had taken money through the surgery accounts and used it to decorate her home, take a holiday and pay credit card bills.

After she was released, she obtained the Hong Kong job.