Keith Connell crashed his car in the city centre and was spotted on CCTV hiding a carrier bag in bushes nearby
Keith Connell, of Brooklawns in Carlow, Ireland, aged 51(Image: Merseyside Police)
A qualified pilot fled the country after he crashed his Jaguar and tried to hide his stash of drugs before police arrived at the scene. Keith Connell smashed his car into street furniture in Liverpool city centre in the early hours while 16 times over the legal limit for cocaine.
The former flight instructor and limousine company owner subsequently tried to hide a carrier bag filled with illicit class A and B substances in nearby undergrowth, but was rumbled by eagle eyed CCTV operators and a sniffer dog. But the dad later failed to attend his trial for drug supply offences, remaining at large for nearly two years before eventually being apprehended.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Thursday February 26, that Merseyside Police were called to the incident at the junction of Crown Street and Brownlow Hill at around 2am on June 5 2023 to find Connell being tended to by paramedics in the driver’s seat, having crashed his vehicle into street furniture. But officers were made aware by CCTV operators that the 51-year-old had been seen getting out of his car immediately after the crash then walking down the street and crouching down near to some bushes.
Suzanne Payne, prosecuting, described how a sniffer dog was then deployed which lead to the discovery of a white plastic bag containing a quantity of drugs. A search of his then home address on Elwy Street in Toxteth subsequently led to the seizure of 20 wraps of drugs from the kitchen, as well as “expenses sheets”, a tick list and £300 in cash.
A safe inside a cupboard in the same room meanwhile contained another 27 packages of drugs and an envelope stuffed with further monies. In total, police recovered 36.73g of cocaine, worth up to £4,300, 66 MDMA pills, valued at £660, 14.4g of crystallised MDMA, potentially worth £1,000, and 3.63g of ketamine with a street value of up to £180.
Connell’s jaw was meanwhile noted to be “chattering” while he spoke to witnesses and PCs at the scene of the accident. When tested, he was found to have more than 800 micrograms of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite breakdown of cocaine, per litre of blood, the legal limit being 50.
Having initially denied the charges against him in relation to the incident, Connell had been released on bail ahead of his scheduled trial in August 2024. But he failed to appear before the court on this date.
Connell, of Brooklawns in Carlow, Ireland, was later detained on a European arrest warrant in his home country on March 28 last year. However, he was said to have attempted to “frustrate” extradition proceedings against him by instructing numerous different firms of solicitors to represent him before he was eventually returned to the UK on November 28 2025.
While Connell was previously sentenced to 11 years behind bars for an unspecified offence in September 2011, he has no drug related convictions. Julian Nutter, defending, told the court: “What you get from this case is that it is not the usual, run of the mill Liverpool class A drugs case.
“You have a man who is old, who has no previous convictions for anything like this, who, having been released from custody down south, was homeless and answered an advertisement which propelled him to Toxteth. He had no knowledge of Toxteth and no knowledge of how vulnerable he would be in such a place if he came here.
“When he arrived, what he took to be the bon ami and welcome that people in this city have given strangers for centuries turned out to be for the wholly wrong reason, of supplying him with a class A drug, cocaine, which is highly addictive, to get him into debt and exploit him. He did the most stupid thing. He left, and the reason that he left and did not attend his trial was one of fear.
“What had happened was he had been embraced by people within our community and had been told that he now had a debt. That which he had been supplied with, apparently for free, was, in fact, a commercial transaction for which he was obliged to pay them back. That is how he became involved in all of this.
“There he was, well away from home, well away from his family, stuck in this country. He was on licence and required to be here until the expiry of that licence period. They got their talons into him whilst he was on licence. That is how he came to Liverpool. He could not leave our jurisdiction.
“All of this, ironically, has happened as result of criminal justice system taking its entirely proper course. The consequence of it all is that he has ended up as a vulnerable person, stuck in exactly the wrong place with exactly the wrong people, dominating, controlling and bullying him and forcing him into the behaviour for which you are now to sentence him.
“Against all of this in the background, he left out of fear. What did he do? He lives openly in Ireland and gets arrested in Ireland. He serves, behind the door, about 11 months in custody. You can bear that in mind in considering my respectful suggestion to the court that a wholly exceptional course can be taken here.
“He is a long way from home. He has a family there. He has a child there. His plan is to go back home and to try and rebuild his life. He is quite extraordinary. He qualifies as a pilot in USA at the age of 18, teaching in a flight school, setting up his own limousine business. How he has fallen. What a fine person he must have been before he fell.”
Connell ultimately admitted possession of cocaine, MDMA and ketamine with intent to supply, drug driving and breaching court bail. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool wearing glasses and a white, black and red hooped jumper, he was jailed for a total of 44 months and banned from driving for two years and two months.
Sentencing, Recorder Martine Snowdon said: “It was a long time ago now, because, when the matter was listed for trial in August of 2024, you did not attend. You have had the benefit of being at liberty and living, for a period of time, as you wished to avoid the consequences of your offending back in 2023.
“I look at your background and I have read with care the detail of the pre-sentence report and the circumstances that led you to be on licence, unable to live where you wanted to live. It is a great shame that your life started so promisingly and has taken an enormous fall from grace.
“But the involvement you had in class A drugs in 2023 means only a sentence of imprisonment can be justified for that. You were under the influence of drugs yourself, clearly a user who was addicted at time. But it was quite some time after your period of licence. I accept that your initial involvement in drugs came about at a time when you were unable to leave the area and return to Ireland, where you wished to be.”
Ensure our latest news and what’s on headlines always appear at the top of your Google search by making us a preferred source. Click here to activate or add us as a preferred source in your Google search settings.