The drug dealers next door: How the peaceful lives of families on quiet suburban street has been shattered after two feared Liverpool gangsters moved in

Lined with large detached homes and neat front yards shaded by silver birches, Westerdale Drive looks like the kind of place you’d move to for a quiet life in the suburbs.

This is exactly how it was for years; Wealthy families were escaping the urban sprawl of Liverpool and Manchester to live quiet lives on the street on the edge of the sleepy seaside town of Banks.

But new residents who think they have left the problems of inner-city life behind will be greatly disappointed.

While the cul-de-sac is mostly home to hard-working professionals and their children, they are forced to live with the most unwelcome neighbors imaginable in the form of two feared Liverpool gangsters.

Stephen Clarke, a crime boss in his late fifties, and his trusted lieutenant Paul Lawler, 47, live a few doors away from each other at the south end of Westerdale Drive.

Neighbours, who spoke anonymously to the Daily Mail out of fear for their safety, painted a disturbing portrait of the chaos around them, from frenzied cocaine benders to a birthday party explosion that reportedly ended with Clarke urinating on a guest.

In one particularly worrying incident, the windows of a house along the road were smashed, although the culprits were never identified.

The latest chapter in the long-running saga occurred on December 27 last year, when neighbors described seeing Lawler emerge from the bushes with a knife.

While the cul-de-sac is mostly home to hard-working professionals and their children, they are forced to live with two notorious gangsters.

These include serial criminal Paul Lawler, who has been involved in a series of violent incidents

The robe-wearing thug then started chasing after a dog walker he picked at random.

‘He was wearing a dressing gown and had a big knife,’ one local man recalled. ‘He chased the person walking his dog and then ran towards the petrol station. The person walking his dog called the police, who sent an armed response team.

‘I heard Paul had a bad cocaine bender that started on Christmas Eve. ‘He was apparently thrown out of a local pub after dropping a bag of Coke on the floor and was seen digging through its contents.’

Lawler, who is currently serving a 16-month prison sentence for possession of a knife, already had a reputation for causing trouble.

Most notably, the former Birkdale High School pupil was jailed for ten years in 2013 for his involvement in a major criminal gang controlled by his neighbour, Stephen Clarke.

When police raided Lawler’s home to arrest him, they found him trying to flush balls of cocaine down the toilet in a scene reminiscent of the movie Goodfellas.

He told officers who found a cannabis farm in his garage that he was ‘off the tram’ after a heavy cocaine session the night before.

In February 2019, Lawler was recalled to prison after he was caught on CCTV punching an unconscious man in Southport town centre.

In May 2021, he ran afoul of the law once again after police found another cannabis farm at his home; but this time he escaped from prison.

Stephen Clarke (left) and his brother Peter (right) from Westerdale Drive

A cache of weapons used by the Clarke brothers gang, including Lawler

Knives and machetes were found in a bag alongside several weapons

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Although Lawler had lived on Westerdale Drive for decades, Stephen Clarke joined him in 2007, shortly after completing a prison sentence for gun possession. The gun, a .357 magnum pistol, was found in his wife’s bag after she left it behind at the Little Chief in Nottingham.

Clarke’s previous home in Kirkby, Liverpool, had been hit by gangland rivals, and he was hoping Banks would provide somewhere to stay – as he put it – “out of sight and out of mind”.

The village is known for its quiet and peaceful nature; As evidenced by the widespread shock and horror experienced among locals when it was revealed that Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three young girls at a dance class in Southport in 2024, was living here.

However, according to a friend, Clarke’s presence had a negative impact on Lawler, who has since ‘unraveled’.

The 17-stone kickboxer recruited Lawler into an organized crime gang he ran with his brother Peter, a former corporal.

His group focused on exporting drugs to Northern Ireland; While Stephen focused on growing cannabis locally in Southport, Peter, who had a stash gun and walked around in body armour, was sourcing cocaine from a Dutch contact.

To the dismay of his neighbors, Stephen hosted parties at his home attended by colorful characters from across Merseyside, including MasterChef contestant Jay Tinker.

At a party, he was seen arguing with a guest, who he allegedly punched before urinating on him as he lay on the floor.

A police surveillance operation eventually arrested the Clarke brothers, who were jailed along with Lawler in 2013. Stephen was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for trafficking cocaine and cannabis worth £4 million; Peter was sentenced to 16 years in prison for drug trafficking and additional firearms charges.

While both are believed to be out of prison, neighbors on Westerdale Drive are most concerned about Lawler being released following the stabbing incident in 2025.

The gang is estimated to have made £2 million smuggling drugs from England to Northern Ireland

A bag full of bullets and a magazine belonging to the gang

A man living nearby said: ‘My main concern is what will happen when Paul gets out.

‘He’s a drug addict and to be honest I’d like him to move out immediately. The incident at Christmas was the final straw.

‘It’s worrying that he’s walking around with a knife in his hand. ‘There are young families in the area and we didn’t move here for that kind of purpose.’

Another neighbor said: ‘This Lawler is a complete lunatic and has been for years. We stand with him and his friends.

‘They are notorious people. It’s okay if you live on the other side of Westerdale, but I feel bad for the families near it. He’s unstable.”