Poor deal with a sect increased in scale (9)

I believe the answer is:

escalated

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'increased in scale' is the definition.
'escalated' can be an answer for 'increased' (escalating is a kind of increasing). I'm not certain of the 'in scale' bit.

'poor deal with a sect' is the wordplay.
'poor' is an anagram indicator.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'deal'+'a'+'sect'='dealasect'
'dealasect' is an anagram of 'ESCALATED'.

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I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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