Macclesfield Express

Drugs boss is told to pay back just 1pc of drug money

- STUART GREER

ADRUGS kingpin who made £275,000 peddling heroin and cocaine in Macclesfie­ld has been ordered to pay back just one per cent of his ill-gotten gains.

Thomas ‘Tom’ Flanagan, 30, is serving eight years in prison after pumping more than four kilos of class A drugs worth £426,000 onto the streets of Macclesfie­ld.

Through his drug empire he was able to run a Landrover Freelander and pay for two luxury holidays, including a break to the Dominican Republic.

He led a gang that brought heroin and crack cocaine into the town from Liverpool before selling them to a list of 200 ‘customers’.

The kingpin, who was jailed in March, was pulled back before a judge for a Proceeds of Crime hearing.

It was organised so that authoritie­s could arrange seizing back some of the profits Flanagan enjoyed.

Simon Parry, prosecutin­g, told the court Flanagan is believed to have made £276,900.

But the only assets investigat­ors could find totalled £2,800 and included the car, fishing rods and tackle and a speaker, as well as cash found during the drugs raids at his home in September 2015.

Flanagan will face a fur- ther six weeks in prison if the money isn’t handed over within three months.

Detective Inspector Pete Lawless, who heads up the Economic Crime Unit at Cheshire Police, said the assets seized from Flanagan go to the Treasury but a percentage comes back to the force to help in the fight against crime.

He said: “The £276,900 is the amount Thomas Flanagan is believed to have made from selling drugs. However the total value of his assets at this time amounts to £2,800. That leaves £274,100 still to pay. This will remain outstandin­g until such time as Thomas Flanagan acquires assets that can be seized from him to repay that outstandin­g amount.”

Flanagan, of Brynmore Drive, Macclesfie­ld, a painter decorator by trade, earlier confessed to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Collective­ly the gang, which included seven others, were jailed for almost 35 years.

They were snared following a year-long, undercover operation by Cheshire Police.

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 ??  ?? ●● Thomas Flanagan was said to have lived a life of luxury before he was caught
●● Thomas Flanagan was said to have lived a life of luxury before he was caught

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