Notorious Liverpool gangland boss grins as he's arrested at pub and finally put back behind bars a month after absconding from prison

A notorious gangland boss grinned as he was arrested at a pub one month on from escaping prison. 

Daniel Gee, 44, was a key underworld figure in a drugs gang that caused mayhem and misery in the Everton area of Liverpool.

Gee was given an indefinite sentence for making threats to kill at Liverpool Crown Court in 2010 and told by a judge that he posed a significant risk to the public.

But he fled Category D open prison HMP Kirklevington Grange in North Yorkshire on May 27 and disappeared, prompting a huge scale manhunt.

Now Merseyside Police has issued a new photo showing the fugitive smiling following his arrest yesterday. 

The force said in a statement: 'We can confirm that Daniel Gee, who had absconded from prison, was detained yesterday in Wigan by officers from Merseyside Police.

'Gee absconded from Kirklevington Prison in Stockton-on-Tees on Monday May 27 and extensive efforts had been ongoing to locate him since.

'He is currently in police custody and will be returned to prison.'

Category D prisons have minimal security and allow risk-assessed prisoners to spend most of their day away from the jail to carry out activities such as work and education as part of their rehabilitation.

Gee is one of Liverpool's 'Gee brothers' who were known for dominating the Grizedale estate in the mid-2000s. His brother, Darren Gee, was jailed for 18 years in 2006 for planning a revenge shooting of a member of a rival crime gang.

In 2017 another brother, Stephen Gee, was handed a six year and eight month sentence after he robbed an OAP while high on cocaine and on anti-psychotic medication.

Daniel Gee had been the subject of months of police surveillance that recorded him making threats to kill and trying to get hold of firearms.

It happened after he was shot in the stomach outside a pub in the Anfield area of Liverpool on New Year's Day 2008.

He went on to make threatening phone calls to the family of the man jailed for shooting him.

During a trial in October 2009, Gee was found guilty of two counts of threats to kill and another two of blackmail. He also admitted conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition.

When he was given an indefinite prison sentence with a minimum of four years, Recorder of Liverpool Judge Henry Globe QC told him: 'I am in no doubt that the public must be protected from you in the future. I really do not know when it will be safe to release you.'

At the time, Gee's barrister, Stuart Lawson-Rogers QC told Liverpool Crown Court that the gangster was 'terrified' an indefinite sentence would mean he would 'never see the light of day again'.

The sentence ran at the same time as the seven-and-a-half year sentence he was serving for drugs offences.

After he absconded from the Cat-D jail a Prison Service spokesperson said: 'All prisoners in Category D prisons are robustly risk-assessed and absconds are rare. Offenders who break the rules are punished and face extra time behind bars and we are working with the police to recapture this prisoner.'