Notorious inmate absconded inside empty fort (8)

I believe the answer is:

flagrant

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'notorious' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'inmate absconded inside empty fort' is the wordplay.
'inmate' becomes 'lag' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'absconded' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this in another clue).
'inside' indicates putting letters inside.
'empty' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'fort' with its centre removed is 'ft'.
'lag'+'ran'='lagran'
'lagran' inserted within 'ft' is 'FLAGRANT'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for flagrant that I've seen before include "Shocking" , "Openly outrageous" , "Patent" , "Crying" , "Unashamed" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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