A PLYMOUTH conman sentenced for his part in a huge NHS swindle went on the run because he feared his father would die while he was in prison, a court heard.

Veteran diver Michael Brass was part of a £250,000 fraud at the Fort Hyperbaric Centre based at Fort Bovisand Dive Centre, run by businessman David Welsh.

Brass skipped bail at the end of his six-week trial in August 2008 and fled abroad.

Aged 45 and originally from Liverpool, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

While on the run, he was sentenced in his absence to 27 months in jail.

He was arrested in Cyprus under a European warrant and brought back on February 24 to begin serving his sentence.

At yesterday's hearing at Plymouth Crown Court, he was given extra prison time for contempt of court.

Prosecutor Kate Brunner said Brass had been on the run from August 8, 2008, to last month.

Questioned under oath by his counsel, barrister Louise Howard, Brass said he had discovered just weeks before his six-week trial that his father, who lived in Holland, had terminal lung cancer and had an estimated six to 12 months to live.

At the end of the trial, he feared he would be convicted and jailed, and would never see his father alive again.

He skipped bail, flew from Manchester airport to Holland, spent time with his father and then went to Dubai, where he worked as a commercial diver to earn money to help pay for his father's private healthcare.

His father lived longer than expected, dying on January 21 this year.

Between then and the funeral on January 31, Brass emailed his solicitor that he had booked a flight from Cyprus to Manchester, was planning to give himself up and would need legal representation.

But when he checked in to the island's hi-tech new airport on a visit to Cyprus to tie up his affairs, his passport was scanned and he was arrested.

The Cypriot police wanted him to board the flight and be met by police on landing, but red tape intervened and Brass spent 10 days in a Cypriot jail before being collected by British detectives and flown back to Devon.

Miss Howard told Judge Ian Leeming QC that justice had not been affected by Brass absconding, his absence was not intended to disrupt proceedings and the public had not been put in danger.

Judge Leeming told Brass he could be jailed for up to 40 weeks for contempt of court, but in the circumstances he would receive an extra 10-week sentence on top of the 27 months he is currently serving.

Brass thanked the judge and smiled as he was led away.

Welsh, Brass and another man, Anthony Walker, were part of a massive swindle between 1998 and 2002 in which the Fort Hyperbaric Centre put in at least 37 bogus claims for NHS treatment for divers suffering from 'the bends'.

Welsh was jailed for five years three months.

Walker, who blew the whistle on the scam, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud at an earlier hearing but escaped a jail sentence.

A confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act involving Welsh and Brass is expected to start at the end of June.