One of Britain’s most-wanted fugitives has finally been jailed after 10 years on the run.
Anthony Judge, 40, disappeared in 2003, hours before he was to be sentenced for smuggling £362,000 of suspected drugs money.
The father-of-two had been expected to plead guilty to hiding the cash in the spare wheel of a car in an attempt to take it out of the UK.
But he failed to show at Canterbury Crown Court and went on the run and became one of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs’ 20 most-wanted.
His two accomplices were given year-long sentences and served just three months but Judge remained at large for 10 years.
He was eventually caught at Heathrow using suspected fake documents and has now been jailed for 19 months.
Judge admitted smuggling and jumping bail and told Canterbury Crown Court he kept running because of his children.
Judge Simon James said despite being on the run for 10 years the maximum sentence for jumping bail was just 12 months.
And because of his guilty plea, Judge was entitled to a discount – making a total of just 19 months.
Stuart Biggs, prosecuting, said Judge had made several journeys from his native Liverpool to Amsterdam in the year before his arrest.
Nicholas James, defending, said he had wanted to give himself up but did not because of his two children.
