The hunt is now over for Maidstone youth worker, Nick Batchelor, who was chased down within the first six minutes of Hunted episode two, which aired yesterday.

Along with friend Paul James, the 51-year-old from Aylesford was found seeking refuge in the Bristol home of acquaintance, Caroline Hogan, after five days steering clear of the hunters.

Mr Batchelor said: "We really, really tried to do everything we could to evade them but from the moment we started we knew the odds were stacked against us."

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Working in Maidstone's Switch Café for the past three years, Mr Batchelor admits he has a criminal past and has been on the run from the police before.

However, the pair realised with today's surveillance methods, it is a much greater challenge to keep off the radar.

Mr Batchelor said: "Being on the run now is totally different. I've never ever experienced anything like it. It was constant stress."

When the show starts, the fugatives just have rucksacks, a little bit of money and their connections. The team of hunters have access to their names, addresses and dates of birth.

As filming progresses, the trackers can comb through social media and request CCTV and number plate recognition footage to locate the contestants.

Having committed a series of crimes between 1988 and 2008 to fund his past drug addiction and spending a total of 10 and a half years behind bars, Mr Batchelor knew what he was letting himself in for.

However, after turning his life around from theft and fraud to 11 years without drink or drugs, he realises he is no longer fit for life on the run.

"Some people have assumed that because of my past, I would have the skills, but I'm not that person any more.

"At the time of my last sentencing, I weighed 7.5 stone and didn't sleep properly for 11 weeks, but now I've got a wife, a son, Ben, a lovely little house in Aylesford and a miniture sausage dog."

Meeting at the start of Mr Bachelor's recovery process, him and Mr James are both now t-total and good friends.

Mr James said: "We're different people today, we live honest lives. We're not trying to duck and dive so we're not conditioned how we used to be."

Despite no longer being a real-life runaway, adrenaline still kicked in for Mr Batchelor when a tracker chased him down at the beginning of the second episode.

"I don't know how I moved that fast, but then I pulled something in my leg and they got me."

The pair may have missed out on the £100,000 prize for evading the hunters for 25 days but Mr Batchelor was not disheartened by being caught.

He entered the show to challenge himself and to show people struggling with addiction that change is possible.

"It was an amazing experience.We wouldn't change it for the world. It's been pucker."