Prisoner hands himself back in after mistaken release from prison
Watch: Mistakenly released prisoner William 'Billy' Smith hands himself in
- Published
A man who was mistakenly released from prison on the day he was sentenced to jail has handed himself back in after three days, police have said.
Surrey Police, which launched a manhunt on Wednesday, said William Smith had handed himself back in to HMP Wandsworth on Thursday.
Smith, 35, was let out of the south London prison on Monday despite having been sentenced to 45 months in prison for multiple fraud offences at Croydon Crown Court earlier that day.
He was one of two prisoners released in error from Wandsworth in separate incidents over the past week, with a manhunt ongoing for Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.
The BBC understands Smith was released as a result of a clerical error at court level - with a suspended sentence entered into the computer system instead of a custodial sentence. A correction was made, but sent to the wrong person.
Surrey Police said on Thursday it was cancelling its appeal to the public for help in locating the wanted 35-year-old.
Meanwhile, police continue to search for Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian man who is a sex offender, after he was let out by mistake on 29 October.
He is understood to have entered the UK legally on a visitor's visa in 2019, but was in the initial stages of the deportation process after being identified as having overstayed in 2020.
The Metropolitan Police said it was not made aware of his release until 4 November.
Cdr Paul Trevers, who is leading the investigation, said Kaddour-Cherif had a "six-day head start but we are working urgently to close the gap".
The releases came just weeks after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex, prompting a manhunt.
Justice Secretary David Lammy has come under fire over the situation, after he had promised to introduce more robust checks to prevent similar cases following Kebatu's release.
Ministers said immediate controls had been put in place in prisons, including more stringent checks when offenders leave prisons for deportation, and an urgent review was ordered into the checks that take place when someone is set free.
An independent investigation was also ordered to establish how Kebatu was released and whether staff had sufficient experience, training and technology.
News of Kaddour-Cherif's release broke just as Prime Minister's Questions was ending on Wednesday - during which Lammy repeatedly refused to answer whether any asylum-seeking offender had been accidentally let out of prison since Kebatu.
Sources told the BBC the governor of HMP Wandsworth, Andy Davy, was not at the prison on the day Kaddour-Cherif was set free because he was involved in the inquiry into Kebatu's release.
Confirming Smith had been returned to prison on Thursday, Lammy wrote on X: "The spike in mistaken releases is unacceptable."
"We're modernising prison systems - replacing paper with digital tools to cut errors.
"We're working with police to recapture Brahim Kaddour-Cherif."
Earlier on Thursday, Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones told BBC Breakfast prison governors were being summoned for an urgent meeting.
She also said technology experts were being deployed to help overhaul "archaic" paper-based systems in prisons.
She said she shared people's "fury and frustration" with the situation, and said it signalled "a prison system and a justice system in crisis".
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the situation was a "complete and utter shambles" and a "dereliction of duty" by Lammy.
"A sex offender is on the streets of our capital city because of a massive failure," he said.
"The public are being endangered yet again."
After Smith's return to prison, the Liberal Democrat MP for Woking, Will Forster said the government still had serious questions to answer on how he was released.
"Our prisons shouldn't be relying on an honours system of wrongfully released people handing themselves back into prison," he said.
Mistaken releases more than doubled in the year to March 2025, the latest data shows - hitting 262 compared with 115 the previous year.
Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers' Association, told the BBC that an average of 22 prisoners were being wrongly released each month.