North Sea Camp prisoner spent time at Spalding hotel with wife

Douglas Ward and his wife stayed at Cley Hall Hotel in Spalding

A prisoner spent time in a hotel with his wife when he was meant to be in prison, a court has been told.

Douglas Ward, 26, from Darlington, was serving time at North Sea Camp, an open prison in Boston, Lincolnshire, for a firearms offence committed in 2011.

Ward and his wife, who used the name Ellen Thompson, checked into Cley Hall Hotel, Spalding, on 30 August.

When staff carried out checks they found Ward had posted on Facebook that he was resident at a prison.

'Model prisoner'

Michael Cranmer-Brown, prosecuting, told Lincoln Crown Court that Ward evaded checks at the open prison.

He said Ward booked one of the hotel's executive rooms and gave his own name and provided credit card details.

Ward booked an executive room at the hotel

The following morning Ms Thompson told staff that her husband had been injured when a chair collapsed underneath him while he was working at a desk.

She claimed he had gone to hospital for treatment and was excused payment for the room after saying her husband had spent the night in hospital.

Ward later appeared at the hotel wearing a bandage on his leg.

The hotel's management later discovered Ward had posted on Facebook that he was living at HMP Strangeways.

He admitted three charges of escaping from prison on 30 August, 31 August and 8 September. He was jailed for 15 months to run concurrently with his previous five-year sentence.

Recorder Paul Mann QC, told Ward: "Your actions had the potential to undermine discipline at that prison and your behaviour has the effect of undermining public confidence in the prison service."

John Wilford, defending, said Ward had been a "model prisoner" but became frustrated when his planned release date was put back.

A spokesperson for the Prison Service said: "We have always been clear that offenders who abscond from open prisons will face consequences - this case is evidence of that commitment."

Answering criticism on prisoners absconding from North Sea Camp, Peter Dawson, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The majority of prisoners respect the trust that is placed in them."

"The response in this case had been swift and appropriate."