A DRUG dealer who absconded during his trial but was later arrested has been jailed for five and a half years.

As the sentence was delivered yesterday his shocked partner shouted at the judge: "Are you mad giving me five and a half years?"

David Leonard Hall looked stunned as the verdict was handed down at Bolton Crown Court by Judge Bruce Macmillan.

In his trial last December police told the jury how they had watched Hall selling drugs and filmed some encounters.

Undercover police officers said Hall was wearing a distinctive coat when he sold drugs but Hall claimed he had not worn the coat that day and they must have seen another man.

Officers had been keeping watch on his flat at Water Street in Radcliffe on October last year and saw several people arrive and leave.

Hall, aged 41, of Water Street, Radcliffe, had denied one charge of selling diamorphine, more commonly known as heroin, on October 21 1999.