A WANTED man who was on the run for almost 20 years is today behind bars for his parts in two drugs plots - but says: "It's a relief."

Trevor Bowman, from County Durham, skipped bail and vanished in 1997, cut off all contact with his family and lived under a false name.

His fugitive life - which he described as "miserable" - came to an end when police carried out a raid on his seaside home in North Wales.

Acting on intelligence, officers found cannabis plants worth up to £70,000 filling two floors of the three-storey property in Colwyn Bay.

He gave false details - those of his brother, whose name he had been living under - but confessed who he really was in a later interview.

A court heard that he fled from the North-East after threats and "a very significant beating" while he was accused of being a police grass.

The Northern Echo:

An enhanced image of Bowman released by police while they were hunting him

He had been one of four men who were arrested following cannabis finds in four properties - two houses, a former pub and a former bank.

Bowman admitted being involved in the production of up to 1,000 plants in West Cornforth, but claimed to have been a "peripheral figure".

Despite some of the drugs being found at his premises, he claimed he was a personal user who helped moving equipment and stripping plants.

He was to face a hearing to decide disputed facts in the case in 1997, but this never went ahead as he did not turn up and went on the run.

Police appeals for help failed to unearth any clues, and checks on the phone records of his relatives showed that he had not been in touch.

Detectives also created an age-enhanced picture in 2010 - the kind used to find long-missing people - to show what he would have looked like.

He was finally arrested again last June, and justice caught up with him yesterday when he was jailed for three years and four months.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Bowman was unable to claim benefits or register with a doctor without his secret life being blown apart.

His barrister Richard Herrmann told the court that the 49-year-old made "by far the most devastating decision in his life" by skipping bail.

The other men involved in the cannabis scheme in West Cornforth received sentences of up to 12 months and would have served half.

Mr Herrmann said: "Had he not absconded, he would have served at most six months, been released and been able to live the life he had.

"Instead, he was a slave to that decision, and he describes a miserable existence of fear and anxiety not knowing if there was going to be a tap on his shoulder or a knock on the door at any time.

"The effect of his lie snowballed to the point where he exiled himself from his previous life, and was living in isolation in North Wales.

"He describes now an enormous sense of relief that he no longer has to live the lie."

The court heard how Bowman - aged 30 when he went on the run - was not able to register with a doctor or get any long-term employment.

He made a living "unlawfully", said Mr Herrmann, and lived for almost two decades what he described as a "reclusive lifestyle".

When he was quizzed last summer, Bowman said: "I had the choice of making money with cannabis or handing myself in to the police."

Bowman, whose address was Hollyhurst Road, West Conforth, admitted further charges of possessing Class B drugs with intent to supply, and producing Class B drugs.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told him: "You have been on the run since April 1997, going to find safety, you thought, in North Wales."