For international fugitive Gary Pyatt, who is facing jail time in both SA and the UK, Pretoria was the end of the line.
Pyatt, who goes by a raft of colourful pseudonyms, was arrested in the capital this week after a visit to the British high commission. It is believed he had been applying for a visa when his application set off alarm bells at Interpol.
For more than a decade South African police, their British counterparts and Interpol have been on Pyatt's heels.
He is understood to have evaded capture for nearly 20 years, having fled the UK shortly after being sentenced to six years in prison by a court in Manchester in 1998 relating to a failed wine venture.
He is alleged to have used the likeness of Manchester United legend Eric Cantona on a range of French wines and brandies.
The club took him to court for fraud and breaching copyright laws, with news site This is Cheshire reporting the booze business had been operating out of an office in Froghall Lane, Warrington.
Pyatt reportedly drove a Rolls-Royce while selling hundreds of bottles of the Cantona wine and was an avid United fan. According to the UK's Crime Stoppers website, Pyatt was listed as a "most wanted" fugitive, having gone on the run in an effort to evade a six-year jail term on charges of "theft, fraud and deception".
Finding a home in SA, Pyatt was first arrested in 2009 for turning his home on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast into a dagga farm. After being released on bail he absconded. Over 400 marijuana seedlings were found in containers at his home, according to police.
In 2010 he was arrested and convicted on charges relating to an illegal firearm, and in his latest dalliance with authorities he allegedly borrowed his business partner's car and vanished in 2014. The stolen car, a Jeep Cherokee, was found three weeks ago abandoned in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape.
Police spokesperson Brig Vish Naidoo confirmed that Pyatt was in custody.
"We received intelligence that this individual, wanted by authorities in the UK, was in Pretoria. Our officials observed him there and during their surveillance established that he was indeed the man wanted on an Interpol red notice," he said.
Naidoo said Pyatt was arrested and taken to the Pretoria magistrate's court.
"When he was in custody he was profiled and we established that he was also wanted on a theft case from Durban. Detectives from Umbilo will be travelling to Pretoria soon and he will be taken to Durban and will appear before a court on those charges."
Pyatt has not been asked to plead...