Bare-knuckle boxing champ who fled to Thailand back behind bars over drugs ring

A former bare-knuckle boxing champion who fled to Thailand to avoid a drugs trial is now back behind bars in the UK.

Luke Atkin, 37, is now serving his 10-year jail sentence imposed in his absence last October after being convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine. He was sentenced alongside fellow members of an organised crime group that peddled the class A drug in York and Tadcaster.

A police operation led to the seizure of £50,000 worth of Class A drugs and the gang members received jail terms totalling more than 50 years.

Atkin, of Warrington, Cheshire, was described as a regular customer of the gang and also played a role as “an enforcer” and debt collector. It is understood that Atkin was detained in Thailand at the end of November and had been subsequently repatriated to the UK.

During a brief hearing on Tuesday at Bradford Crown Court, Atkin appeared via a video link from HMP Wandsworth. He pleaded guilty to failing to surrender to the court last April and Judge Kirstie Watson sentenced him to an additional prison term of four months.

His barrister, Emily Hassell, said there was no mitigation she could properly advance on his behalf as he had left the jurisdiction close to the beginning of his trial. She said he fully admitted the offence of failing to surrender and apologised for any delay that caused.

Judge Watson noted that the trial had gone ahead and Atkin had been convicted.

She said: "So to that extent your absence did not impede the course of justice. You pleaded guilty to this matter at the first opportunity once you had been brought back to this court."