Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire owner of Manchester City and former Thai prime minister, became a fugitive from justice yesterday after fleeing into exile in Britain rather than facing a prison sentence for fraud.

His spectacular political career appeared to be over for good after Thailand’s Supreme Court issued arrest warrants for Mr Thaksin and his wife, Potjaman, and seized 13 million baht in bail bonds after he failed to appear to face charges that could have landed him in prison for 13 years.

Mr Thaksin was given permission by the court to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing last week, and attracted some attention when he departed for the airport with an unusually large amount of luggage. Sure enough, instead of flying back to Bangkok as planned on Sunday, he quietly took a flight to London the day before.

"My wife and I will stay in England where democracy is more important," he said in a hand-written statement issued from his house in London. “Obvious judicial interference and double standards caused me and my family to receive no justice ... What happened to me and my family and my close relations resulted from efforts to get rid of me from politics.”

Thailand's stock market closed 1.8 percent higher on the news of Mr Thaksin’s flight, which raised hopes of an end to the country's political conflict. Mr Thaksin was Thailand’s most popular prime minister ever, but also its most divisive. His enemies, mainly among the urban middle class, accused him of using his great wealth to compromise human rights, freedom of the press, and of undermining the constitutional checks and balances. But he was adored by rural Thais, who felt themselves to be unrepresented by Thailand’s mainstream political establishment.

He was deposed in a military coup in 2006 and went into exile in London. But he appeared to be heading back to power last December after a general election which was won by the People Power Party (PPP), whose leader, the prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, made no secret of his allegiance to Mr Thaksin.

Mr Samak has faced virulent opposition protests – significantly, key members of the PPP yesterday put a distance between themselves and Mr Thaksin.

He is charged with corruption relating to Ms Potjaman’s purchase of a 772 million baht plot of land in central Bangkok in 2003. The prosecutors allege that a government agency sold the property at Mr Thaksin’s behest for one third of its market value. Around two billion dollars of his assets have been frozen by the government, and these may now also be forfeited.

Mr Thaksin returned to cheering crowds in Bangkok in February. Many Thais had assumed that after the victory of the PPP, and given the reputation of Thailand’s courts for less than complete independence, he had a good chance of being acquitted. But he evidently changed his mind after his wife was sentenced to three years in jail, pending appeal.

“I must apologise again for deciding to come to live in England,” he said. “If I am fortunate enough, I will return and die on Thai soil, just like other Thais.”

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