Mistakenly released prisoner Billy Smith turns himself in | Prisons and probation
A fraudster who was mistakenly released from prison this week turned himself in during the capture of a convicted sex offender who was also accidentally released.
William Smith was filmed waving to cameras and hugging his partner before walking back to HMP Wandsworth in south-west London, as justice secretary David Lammy insisted the government crack down on typos.
Smith, 35, commonly known as Billy, was sentenced to 45 months in prison at Croydon crown court on Monday for multiple counts of fraud, but was later released by the prison in error.
A clerical error by the court led to the prison being told it was a suspended sentence, meaning he no longer needed to remain in custody. The court corrected the error but HMP Wandsworth was not notified.
Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who was mistakenly released from Wandsworth last week, remains at large.
The Met police, who had been hunting him, were only informed of his release on Tuesday and expressed disappointment at his “six day head start”.
Their accidental release increased pressure on Lammy, who last week announced a checklist to ensure prisoners were not accidentally released following the release of Hadush Kebatu on 24 October.
Prison governors have been called to a meeting with Lammy in Leicestershire on Thursday. Speaking later, the Chancellor told reporters that Kaddour-Cherif’s accidental release occurred before the new checklist was implemented.
“This week we learned that the worrying release was actually before I implemented these checks a few weeks ago after Kebatu was released and the other prisoner was actually not the prison’s fault but the court’s fault.
“But the truth is, I’ve been on the job for two months; the rate of mistaken release is very high,” he said.
He said the “paper-based” system currently used to prosecute criminals in prisons, courts and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) would be overhauled.
“We made 800 mistakes under the last government, this has been going on for a generation. Our prison system is in crisis, so we need to overcome this, but we have a mountain to climb,” he said.
Lammy faced scrutiny over his handling of the mistaken release of Kaddour-Cherif after he refused to answer questions put to him in the House of Commons on Wednesday. He emphasized that the parliament was not misled. “I have come to the conclusion that it is important to have all the details when updating the home and the country on serious matters like this,” he said.
The government “must take responsibility” for the crisis of wrongfully released prisoners, a senior Labor MP has said.
Andy Slaughter, chairman of the House of Commons justice committee, told Sky News the prison system was “chaotic” and suffered from understaffing and a lack of modern technology.
Asked who is to blame for the current situation, he told Sky News: “The government has to take responsibility, the Labor government going forward. I think if you look at how we got here, you’re talking years if not decades. And it’s not one problem, it’s an accumulation of problems.”
Official figures show the number of prisoners mistakenly released has more than doubled in a year.
According to data from the Ministry of Justice, 262 people have been wrongly released since March, compared with 115 last year.
Prison sources say the sharp increase in “wrongful discharges” – the official definition of errors – is partly due to the overcrowding crisis.
Before the meeting, the Prison Governors Association said wrongful releases were “neither rare nor secret” but the extent of them was “extremely worrying”.
In a statement, the PGA highlighted that only 0.5% of prisoners were not released on the correct date, but added: “While this may seem like a small percentage, it represents a serious operational failure in a system that manages tens of thousands of releases and transfers every three months.”
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan police continued to appeal to the public regarding the whereabouts of Kaddour-Cherif, who is believed to still be in London just a week after his release.
“We are actively searching for Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday 29 October.
“He is believed to be in London and has links to Tower Hamlets and Westminster. If you see him please call 999 immediately,” the Met said in a statement.
Kabatu was mistakenly released from Chelmsford prison and made at least four attempts to return to prison. He was eventually caught in Finsbury Park, north London, and given money while being deported to Ethiopia.
