Jailbirds are being wrongly released from prisons at the rate of nearly one every week.
A total of 505 criminals, including at least one murderer, sexual offenders and other violent lags, have been put back on the streets by mistake over the past 10 years, say figures obtained using under-threat Freedom of Information laws.
In one incident Martynas Kupstys, 25, was let out of HMP Lincoln while on remand for murder in August last year.
Tory MP Philip Davies, a member of the Commons Justice Committee, said: “These disturbing figures show that once a week the Prison Service releases the wrong prisoner and has done so for many years.
“This is a shambles which puts the public unnecessarily at risk.”
Errors in 2014/15 resulted in 41 people being wrongly released from prison in England and Wales and seven from court custody – one fewer than the 49 the previous year.
Just under a quarter in the two years were serving sentences for, or charged with, robbery or violent offences including assault and battery.
In July 2014, a prisoner was freed from HMP Hewell in Worcestershire after being mixed up with an inmate with the same surname.
He was back in a day later.
Two wrongly freed in 2014/15 had not been returned to custody as of the end of last month – including an alleged sex offender.
And for 2013/14, David Cameron ’s local prison, HMP Bullingdon, Oxon, was the worst offender with 10 incidents.
The problem peaked at 68 cases in England and Wales in 2009/10.
A Prison Service spokesman said: “These incidents are very rare but we are not complacent.
"The number of releases in error has fallen by almost a third since 2009 and the vast majority are returned to custody very quickly.”
The Ministry of Justice figures come as the Tories bid to neuter FoI legislation to prevent any more embarrassing information being released.
Murderer released
Murderer Martynas Kupstys was released from high-security HMP Lincoln by mistake as he waited to be taken to his trial.
The 25-year-old told officers he was due in court as they handed him his clothes and belongings – but they said he had to leave.
A frantic hunt ensued and confused Kupstys, who sat outside at a bus stop, was found after three hours.
The blunder in August 2014 led to the collapse of his trial.
At his retrial, he said: “I was told everything was in order and I was being released.”
Kupstys was eventually jailed for life for the murder of Ivans Zdanovics, 24, in Gainsborough, Lincs, in January 2014.
