Escaped prisoner spent 20 years as steroid kingpin to pay for his arthritis treatment

dailystar.co.uk:

prison after he became a drug lord - and he did it to pay for treatment for his arthritis.Barry Doughty initially escaped from HMP Littlehey in November, 1999, after bending an iron bar on his cell door, before jumping over on outer prison fence.He fled to Europe, and evaded police ever since.

The 57-year-old, however, stayed under the radar after changing his name to Gary Monk, Kent Online reports.During his time away, he created an anabolic steroid drug scheme, worth around £900,000 – but was arrested when he returned to the UK in 2019.He was given a six-year jail sentence at Canterbury Crown Court this week after pleading guilty to escaping prison and his involvement in the supply of Class C drugs.Two other people were given jail terms for their involvement, too.George Higgins will serve three years, while Samuel Winwright was given an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years – the latter will also worked 200 hours unpaid community work over a 12-month period.Doughty was unable to use his fake name to get medical treatment on the NHS, so started selling steroids to cover his £14,000-£15,000 medical bills via an online drugs businessJudge Simon James said: “Each of you were part of a commercial enterprise supplying illegal Class C drugs, which was operational for almost two years.“The enterprise involved the product being branded produced by 'Genesis Underground Labs', advertised via a website and supplied not only throughout the UK but as far afield as the USA, with payments being made to a variety of different bank accounts specifically set up to launder the proceeds."“You were the architect and organiser, responsible for set up and the recruitment of the others, who were all effectively working for you.“The money.