Police struggling to catch one-legged drug dealer on the run release CCTV footage

Last known movements in UK of organised crime boss with prosthetic limb revealed

Detectives have intensified their manhunt for a one-legged drug dealer who disappeared more than a year ago.

The National Crime Agency has released CCTV footage of organised crime group boss Richard Wakeling, from Brentwood, Essex, who was sentenced to 11 years’ jail in his absence after fleeing his trial.

The 52-year-old has a prosthetic leg and needs regular medical treatment, the agency said.

He tried to import £8m of liquid amphetamine into the UK in April 2016.

This time last year his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court went ahead without him after he absconded.

The agency has now released CCTV footage of Wakeling’s last recorded movements to appeal for help in tracing him.

The video shows him leaving his home on 5 January last year, chatting to a workman and getting into his white Audi Q3, registration number EF66 ZWR.

He drove to Heathrow, where he caught a bus to Glasgow and then joined a ferry going from Stranraer to Belfast.

Wakeling has family in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Canada and Thailand, agency chiefs said.

A week after he disappeared, his car was driven back to his home in Essex.

Paul Green, of the agency, 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.”

Additional reporting by PA