Fugitive Polly Peck tycoon Asil Nadir faces UK justice

Tycoon Asil Nadir, whose escape from a £34m fraud trial in the UK in 1993 by light aircraft seemed to signal the end of the Thatcherite adventure, returns to the UK today for the first time in 17 years.

Nadir, who has been living beyond the reach of British courts in his native northern Cyprus, is returning voluntarily after receiving an assurance he would not be arrested but would be granted £250,000 bail while he waits to stand trial.

He had hinted in a 2003 interview that he might come to the UK to face trial, and it looked imminent last month when a UK judge set his bail conditions. But Nadir's return is still a wholly unlooked-for final twist in the 69-year-old’s story.

Starting in 1980, Nasir took garment firm Polly Peck, then barely making a profit, from a small business in the East End of London to a £1.7bn FTSE 100 empire in a single decade – and donated £500,000 to Mrs Thatcher's Conservative party along the way. His downfall was the accusation he had stolen on a massive scale from his shareholders.

Travelling with his 26-year-old wife, three bodyguards and two lawyers, Nadir flew from Cyprus to Antalya, where he was leant an Airbus A320 by Onur Air for this morning's trip to London.

He told the Times: "I feel determined. I am very happy that what I have been striving for for many years is finally coming to fruition - to be able to go to England without any unnecessary threat of arrest and to be given the chance to put my case.

"I am hoping for closure of this long-running case in a fair and just way. I have been a citizen of the United Kingdom for more than 30 years without a blemish on my character and I am entitled to a fair hearing. The one thing I can completely rely on is the total conviction of my belief in my innocence - that is what gives me strength."

The Serious Fraud Office has been scrambling to resurrect its case against Nasir – almost all of the staff involved have since retired, and the files had been shelved. Less keen to see Nadir may be pilot Peter Dimond, who flew him to France in May 1993 on the first leg of his escape. Left to carry the can, Dimond was jailed for two years in August 1998. ·