A tipoff to police that a man accused of bilking an insurance firm was in Whitehorse led to an arrest almost two years after charges were sworn.

Gary Sidney Tanner, 31, is charged with defrauding more than $5,000 from Co-operators Insurance while he was employed there between October 1999 and September 2001.

A local RCMP officer arrested him three days before Christmas on a warrant police had for him since February 2002. The warrant was Yukon-wide only.

Released the same day on $10,000 no-deposit bail, Tanner isn't allowed to leave the Yukon and has to stay at a Granger address. He's to be back in court in early February.

While the RCMP won't specify how much Tanner is accused of defrauding his former employer, a police spokeswoman said it's between $5,000 and $10,000.

According to filed charges, Tanner is charged with defrauding Co-operators by taking insurance premiums from clients and not issuing a policy to cover the customer, or taking partial premiums from clients and issuing them an insurance policy for a lesser coverage amount than the customer had paid for.

Co-operators discovered something was amiss when a client made a claim only to discover there was no coverage, said police. The company had to wait for other claims to come in or for policies' renewal dates to come up, police added.

Various types of insurance policies were affected, though the RCMP aren't saying how many cases they've come across.

Tanner worked at the insurance company until September 2001, when he left the job.

He wasn't located until recently because he was living in British Columbia and was outside the country as well, police said.