A drug dealer, described as the “biggest blagger going” by his brother, got customers thousands of pounds in debt to force them to do his bidding.

Darren Lomax, aged 36, of Ashton Street, Little Lever, used violence and threats to make clients pick up and deliver cocaine and payments for him. He was eventually arrested in July 2019.

At Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court he was finally sent to prison for five years and four months and his brother, David told The Bolton News that he is glad he has finally paid for his crimes.

He said: “I’m surprised he didn’t get longer than that! He was heavily involved in drug dealing for a long time.

“He was doing that Covid trick to get the case delayed and I was ringing the court every week to see if it was still going ahead. He’s the biggest blagger going!”

In court, where former Bolton judge Graeme Smith is now sitting, Fyed Ahmed, prosecuting, told how Lomax had supplied cocaine and cannabis throughout Bolton using clients who owed him thousands of pounds.

To maintain control, he threatened one of his clients at home and hit him in the face with a knuckle duster.

This only ended in July 2019 after the man went to police and told them what was happening.

Officers then raided the home of another of Lomax’s debtors where they found cocaine, cannabis and drug paraphernalia.

He also said that he had been threatened by Lomax and made to do his bidding.

Lomax was arrested on July 19, 2019 and denied dealing cocaine and cannabis as well as assault but changed his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial in June last year.

Amanda Johnson, defending, said that Lomax had been an addict himself and was also in debt to higher level drug traffickers.

Since then, she said, he has settled down with “a decent woman who has been a good influence on him” and has been in regular work.

But Judge Smith, sentencing him, told Lomax: “What you did in response to that pressure was to put pressure on others.”