In the 2000 BDO World Darts Championship, after beating Bob Taylor, Steve Douglas, Kevin Painter and Chris Mason, Hankey whitewashed Ronnie Baxter 6–0 in the final, winning the match with a spectacular 170 checkout – the highest three-dart finish achievable.
[1] Hankey again reached the quarter-finals in 2005, this time falling to England captain Martin Adams 5–3, despite at one stage in the contest having led by 3–1 in sets.
[1] In the 2010 BDO World Darts Championship Hankey beat Gary Robson 3–0 and Willy van de Wiel 4–1 before being knocked out of the competition in the quarter-final by Dave Chisnall with a scoreline of 5–4 on sets, despite at one point leading 4–1.
[1] He played Michael van Gerwen winning the match by 10 legs to 9 before losing narrowly against Mark Walsh 14–16, after making a comeback from a 9–15 deficit.
[1] In the 2012 BDO World Darts Championship, Hankey defeated newcomer Clive Barden 3–2 in sets, then the man who knocked him out of the previous year's tournament, Scott Waites 4–3 to qualify for the quarter-final.
[3] After the match Hankey announced he did not plan on returning to Lakeside the following year and would instead join the BDO's rival organisation, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
[4] Hankey also controversially suggested that the air conditioning was deliberately turned on when he was throwing for the match in the tenth set so as to prevent him from leaving the BDO as World Champion.
[6] Hankey then won his first matches in the PDC by defeating Steve West 6–5 and Toon Greebe 6–1 in the first UK Open qualifier in Crawley, before losing 6–4 to Connie Finnan.
In May, Hankey had his best finish on the tour to date, reaching the last 16 of the Players Championship Event 5, losing 1–6 to Raymond van Barneveld.
[7] In his first major event on the tour, the UK Open, Hankey beat qualifier Danny Dutson 4–0 and Andy Jenkins 4–1, but then lost to his old BDO rival Mervyn King 1–4 in the second round.
Hankey was then seen rubbing his left eye repeatedly and losing his balance, and Van Gerwen eventually won the match 5–0 with a 90 average.
Two days later it was revealed that Hankey had suffered a transient ischemic attack, had very high cholesterol and diabetes and needed six to eight weeks' rest, which ruled him out of the qualifier for the 2013 World Championship.
[13] Hankey qualified for the UK Open and beat Bernd Roith and Dave Weston before seeing a 3–1 lead turn into a 4–9 defeat in the third round to John Part.
[14] He qualified for his first European Tour event in July but was forced to withdraw from it in September due to whiplash injuries suffered in a minor car crash.
[16] However, Hankey produced a superb performance in his next game against Dave Chisnall as from 3–3 he hit a 170 finish and then scored 177 in the next leg to set up 32 and a 5–3 win.
[17] He then defeated 2013 World Youth champion Michael Smith 5–1 in his final game to progress to the knock-out stages, where he faced Simon Whitlock.