Get out of jail free - walk out front gate - National - smh.com.au

Get out of jail free - walk out front gate - National - smh.com.au:

TWO prisoners who escaped from Silverwater jail did not scale a fence, as police claimed, but strolled through the front gate after convincing a guard they had work permits.

Todd Ellis, 33, and Todd John Carr, 27, escaped on Thursday during a switch of guards while only one officer was manning the gate.

Ellis is believed to have hidden half his name badge and pretended to be another prisoner named Ellis who had a permit to work in the prison grounds.

The guard allowed both men through the gate towards the outer exit. They then bolted from the prison grounds, stole bicycles from two girls, rode to nearby shops, stole a van and drove away.

Ellis, serving a 15-month term for car theft, property theft and assault, was recaptured at a house in Peakhurst on Friday night. He was yesterday refused bail at Parramatta court. Carr, more than five years into a 6�-year sentence for robbery, is still on the run.

A prisons source, who declined to be named, said the officer who let the prisoners through the gate had recently returned to work after a long absence and had been confused.

"It was a mistake, but a very stupid one," the source said.

Both prisoners were being held in the Silverwater Correctional Centre, a minimum security prison. They appear to have timed their escape so that only one guard would be at the gate to check their requests to work in the jail's outer gardens. A second officer was checking the prison armoury.

Bob Stapleton, a spokesman for the Department of Corrective Services, said the department had never claimed the men had scaled a fence. He said the guard had not been suspended, but the matter was being investigated.

A police spokeswoman said yesterday that officials at Silverwater had told police that the men had escaped by scaling a fence.

"That is the information we were given by Corrective Services," the spokeswoman said.

But a spokeswoman for the department said she was not aware of any claim that the men had scaled a fence.

Carr is described as being Caucasian, 185 centimetres tall, of medium build, with brown hair, hazel eyes and several tattoos.

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