By JOHN ANDREWS
The whereabouts of fugitive Brian James Curtis remain a mystery after a reported sighting in Tonga turned out to be a professional yacht skipper.
For Scottish-born New Zealander Sandy Watt it was almost a bad dream to find himself being likened to Curtis, the "godfather" who has been on the run from New Zealand police for more than seven years.
The Taimi o Tonga (Times of Tonga) reported three weeks ago that the mastermind of the only successful long-term breakout from Paremoremo maximum security prison had been spotted in the kingdom.
Several people thought the man on a yacht moored off the Royal Sunset Resort on Atata Island, about 11km from the Tongan capital, Nuku'alofa, fitted Curtis' description.
He was supposedly using the name Sandy Watt, and staying on the yacht Impetuous.
Three former Tongan police officers surreptitiously took photographs of the sailor and dispatched the film to New Zealand for police examination.
Despite their best efforts, they got the wrong man - Mr Watt, a former Gisborne and Waiheke resident-turned charter yacht skipper who has spent many years associated with the yacht and resort owners, New Zealand-born Tongan citizens David and Terry Hunt.
Mrs Hunt had never heard of Curtis until a journalist called asking if police had arrested him at the resort.
The Hunts' resort was also said to have been raided by police.
Mrs Hunt said: "We had not seen hide nor hair of them. Sandy was a little offended because this guy is about 70 and Sandy is 59."
News of the supposed police raid prompted calls from as far afield as Libya, where a former guest, a New Zealander, is now living.
Mr Watt said the case of mistaken identity snowballed after the Herald reported that several people had seen a man they swore was Curtis living on a yacht near the resort.
"There is only one person and that is me," said Mr Watt.
"We have had zero contact with the Tongan police."
As a charter yacht skipper who delivered craft to other countries occasionally, his main concern was somehow being linked to Curtis.
"That's the last thing I need," he said.
"We thought it was a joke to start with. It was the unreality of it. People were taking it as genuine. It was only a matter of time before [the police] found it was not me."
Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Bush, the North Shore-based officer in charge of the hunt for Curtis, said yesterday that he was satisfied Mr Watt was not the fugitive brother-in-law of Tonga's Minister of Police, Clive Edwards, a former Auckland lawyer.
"There is a similarity but he is blond and Curtis had grey hair," he said.
"We are no closer to finding Curtis."
Boat skipper mistaken for a jail slipper
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