Security firm reviews van locks after con escape

SECURITY firm Reliance is to look at changing the locks in its prison escort vans after guards allowed a violent prisoner to escape, a court heard yesterday.

Steven Black, 30, made his break for freedom as he was being transferred from Addiewell Prison, in West Lothian, to Shotts Prison, in Lanarkshire, earlier this year.

The inmate, who is serving a seven year sentence for serious assault, claimed an unlocked cage door inside the prison van swung open as it went over a bump in the road.

After he became involved in a struggle with another prisoner and a guard, he fell against the back door, which sprung open.

He tumbled on to the road, suffering bruises and grazing. When the van arrived at Shotts a short time later minus one of its prisoners, staff alerted the police. Black was caught nearby within 15 minutes.

Reliance won the seven-year, 126 million deal in 2004 to ferry Scotland's criminals between court and jail. Since then, more than 50 prisoners, including a teenage killer, have escaped from the company's custody.

Reliance officers were taking no chances of a repeat escape when Black appeared in the dock at Livingston Sheriff Court yesterday. The accused was double cuffed and guarded by three well-built officers.

Black pleaded guilty to absconding from the custody of Reliance officers by escaping from the van on the A71 at Breich, West Lothian, on 28 April and was sentenced by Sheriff Valerie Johnston to serve an extra nine months in prison.

A Reliance spokesman said: "We have a small number of this particular model of vehicle and as a precaution we took them off the road following this incident.

"The vehicles are undergoing stringent tests and we expect them to become operational again in the near future."