Escaped dealer faces longer sentence

The fake Ecstasy tablets were to be sold as genuine

A drug trafficker who is on the run after being jailed for five years has had his sentence increased by the appeal court.

Mark Hilton, from Lancashire, now faces seven years in prison when he is caught, following the Court of Appeal's ruling.

He went missing from Kirkham prison in Lancashire three weeks ago.

The prisoner was jailed last year after being involved in a plot to flood the UK with fake ecstasy tablets.

He would have sold them throughout the UK as genuine

Lord Justice Kennedy

The 40-year-old, from Main Street, Warton, Carnforth, was originally convicted by a jury at Preston Crown Court.

The appeal judges heard Hilton bought premises in Morecambe in 1997 and invested in buying ingredients he believed were not illegal, but if combined, could produce a similar effect to ecstasy.

He studied chemistry and bought a pill press for £140,000 that could produce 40,000 pills an hour, all with genuine-looking ecstasy logos.

On Wednesday the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, successfully argued his sentence was "unduly lenient".

Lord Justice Kennedy, sitting with Mr Justice Sachs and Mrs Justice Hallett, agreed with submissions by Christopher Hehir, representing Lord Goldsmith, that five years did not reflect the gravity of Hilton's crime.

National franchise

Hilton's counsel, Stephen Fidler, earlier told the court that - although on the run - Hilton had been in contact with his lawyers, and knew the case was going ahead.

Lord Justice Kennedy said the tablets were fake Es, but added: "In every other respect they looked like Ecstasy tablets and even had the motif of the real ones. He would have sold them throughout the United Kingdom as genuine."

He told the court that Hilton's accomplice, who subsequently pleaded guilty to the charge and was jailed for 15 months, was to have been set up as the national franchisee.