'Big money' drug dealer fled UK before sentence

A "big money" drug dealer who fled the UK before he could be sentenced has been jailed for 11 years.

Michael Hagan, 34, dealt in commercial scale quantities of cocaine and cannabis for three months of the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020, Teesside Crown Court heard.

He admitted conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs in July 2024 but went on the run before he could be sentenced, only returning to the UK in August this year.

Hagan, of Liverton Avenue in Middlesbrough, was caught after police cracked the EncroChat network on which he used the handle Vocal Dove, the court heard.

Between March and June 2020, Hagan exchanged messages with others on the network in which he discussed supplying 10 to 11kg of drugs, judge Peter Armstrong said.

"You squarely fall into a leading role as organising the buying and selling of drugs on a commercial scale," the judge told Hagan, adding at one point the dealer described himself as a "wholesaler".

"How much you stood to make from this it's not entirely clear but no doubt this was big money," the judge said, adding there was a "big amount of drugs" involving "tens of thousands of pounds".

Hagan "panicked" and left the country which "had the affect of delaying you having to face justice for two years", the judge said.

He returned in August to hand himself in, the court heard, and admitted failing to surrender for his previous court appearance.

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