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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Christine Carrigan

NCA releases CCTV of crime boss Richard Wakeling last seen heading to Belfast

The National Crime Agency has released CCTV of a crime boss who absconded from jail and was last seen boarding a ferry from Stranraer to Belfast.

Richard Wakeling, 52 and from Brentwood in Essex, tried to import £8million of liquid amphetamine into the UK in April 2016.

Wakeling absconded before his 12-week trial began and was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison at Chelmsford Crown Court, in his absence on April 9 2018.

National Crime Agency Operations Manager Paul Green said: “Wakeling has been on the run for well over a year now and knows we are still looking for him.

“He should also know we will do everything in our power to bring him back to serve his sentence.

“I would urge him to hand himself in. I’ve no doubt someone seeing this appeal will have information about his whereabouts.

“Anyone helping Wakeling or actively frustrating our efforts to find him could be arrested for assisting an offender."

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Wakeling, who has family and friends in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Canada and Thailand, has a prosthetic leg and needs regular medical treatment.

Today, 15 months on, the NCA has released CCTV footage of Wakeling’s last recorded movements and is appealing for help tracing him.

Wakeling left his home in Juniper Court, Beech Avenue, Brentwood, Essex, at 9.48am on Friday January 5.

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He drove off in his car, a white Audi Q3, registration number EF66 ZWR.

The car was in the Iver area later that day before he caught a bus from Heathrow to Glasgow. The following day he took a ferry from Stranraer to Belfast.

A week later on Saturday January 13, Wakeling’s car was driven back to his home address.

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