AN URGENT security review is being carried out at Rossendale Magistrates' Court after a man who was sentenced to five months in prison fled the building - after being asked to wait at the back while security officers were called to take him to jail.

David Edwards, 30, of Church Street, Stacksteads, appeared before magistrates last Thursday charged with driving while disqualified, possessing an offensive weapon, and other driving offences.

He was convicted and sentenced but was asked to wait at the back of the court for Group Four security officers to arrive to take him to prison.

But as the business of the court carried on Edwards took his chance and fled and was on the run for five days before being recaptured.

He was eventually arrested yesterday at his home as part of Operation Pease, an anti-crime crackdown in the Bacup area, and taken straight to Preston Prison.

Peter Harling, clerk to the justices for Pennine Magistrates, admitted that the security situation at Rossendale Magistrates' Court was not ideal and that the magistrates relied on the maturity of those sentenced to wait for security staff to arrive and take them to jail. He said: "We are in the hands of Group Four because there is no secure accommodation available at Rossendale. We simply have to wait for the security officers of Group Four to arrive, who assure us they will be there within an hour.

"At the moment once the defendant is sentenced they are asked to wait in the court room for the security officers to arrive to take them to prison as there is no secure room at Rossendale.

The incident is the latest in a string of errors which has seen conditions at the old-fashioned court house come under fire.

Last year Group Four had to answer to the Home Office after prisoners, including a 15-year-old boy, were handcuffed to radiators as there was no secure room in which they could be interviewed by their solicitors.

A spokeswoman for Group Four said: "This man was never even in our custody and in fact we didn't even get a call to say our services were needed. Normally once a defendant is sentenced somebody from the court calls us and we dispatch a van which then takes the prisoner to Burnley Magistrates' Court, but on this occasion this didn't happen.

"We only got a call in the afternoon to tell us this man had disappeared."

County Councillor David Baron, a court lay visitor, described the situation at the court as "farcical".

He said: "There is a secure room at Rossendale, but because there is only one, Group Four said they couldn't fulfil their contract as they would have to keep remaining prisoners in a van outside the court while one prisoner was in the secure room, therefore doubling the number of staff they needed.

"So as from January 1 it was decided that the police would not refer any custody cases to Rossendale, which means there are no supervisory people there at court for when the magistrates feel somebody who comes before them deserves a custodial sentence.

"But I feel this is all part of the plan to close Rossendale Magistrates' Court, as there are no custody cases there, and no family cases, and the role of the magistrates and the duty solicitor scheme is reduced."

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