Midlands boxing champion Lennox Clarke jailed after going on run to Ireland, Thailand and Mexico
West Midlands-based Lennox Clarke is a former British and Commonwealth boxing champion
A former boxing champion has been jailed for supplying cocaine to a drug dealer after going on the run to Ireland, Thailand and Mexico.
Lennox Clarke, who is from Stourbridge, has been sent down for six years and four months.
It comes after the 33-year-old met a drug dealer called Ben Goff at least 12 times after a previous conviction in 2012 for supplying Class B drugs.
Detective Inspector Matt Phillips of Gloucestershire Police said after the verdict that he hoped Clarke's sentencing "gave confidence to the community" in reporting drug concerns and that the former fighter had not learned his lesson over his previous conviction.
Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp
He revealed that Gloucestershire Police started receiving information about suspicious activity and drug dealing happening back in 2023.
He said: "That investigation led us to Ben Goff, an individual who had just moved back to Gloucestershire, and through him we made the link to Lennox Clarke."
Goff would travel from Cheltenham to meet with Clarke in the West Midlands.
Police arrested Goff, who was sentenced last year after selling drugs collected from Clarke to his Gloucestershire customers.
Detective Inspector Phillips said that Clarke then went on the run.
He added: “Just after Goff got arrested, Clarke decided to go on the run for a number of months, initially staying in local hotels for a couple of nights, we think, trying to understand whether the police were coming for him.
"Then, he went out through Wales to Ireland, and spent some time on the run in Thailand, Mexico and other places until he returned to the UK and was arrested."
The news comes years after Clarke’s last boxing match, The Mirror reports.
His career began in 2013 and he lost to Lerrone Richards in 2019 before bouncing back 18 months later by beating Hutchinson.
Clarke won the British and Commonwealth super-middleweight titles in 2021 but he lost his first defence against Mark Heffron over a year later and has not fought since.