Inmate Walks Out Of Open Prison To Enjoy A Night With His Wife In Boutique Hotel

A brazen prisoner walked out of a notorious open prison to enjoy an overnight stay at a luxury hotel with his wife and even tricked management into giving him the executive room for free.

Douglas Ward, 26, dodged at least four roll calls at North Sea Camp Prison while he was living it up in the Grade II-listed boutique hotel with wife Eileen, 27, over the August bank holiday weekend.A court heard the inmate – who was serving more than five years for firearms offences at the time – was only rumbled when suspicious hotel staff discovered his Facebook page listed his status as a ‘serving prisoner’

By then, Ward had uploaded photographs of him and his wife drinking the contents of the mini-bar in their room at 15-bedroom Cley Hall Hotel, a Georgian property in the centre of Spalding, Lincolnshire.

The court heard Ward’s wife checked in to the hotel using the name Ellen Thompson – a false first name with her maiden surname. She was described by the hotel manager as having an ‘orange complexion as if she used fake tan and what he took to be very large breast implants’

Mrs Ward then negotiated a second free night after claiming her husband could not drive them back to their home town of Darlington, County Durham, because his ankle was too swollen.

But by then, staff had become suspicious of the couple after noticing Ward wearing ‘a simple crepe bandage on his leg that he thought was not of the type that would be given out by a hospital’.

Mr Cranmer-Brown added: ‘The manager was a bit suspicious. He was concerned there may be some adverse comments on Facebook and made some inquiries.

The prosecutor added: ‘At North Sea Camp there are rolls calls at 5am, 5pm, 8pm and midnight. He was able to evade these checks. It is not entirely clear whether he returned or he just wasn’t checked.

Lincoln Crown Court heard the hotel staff attempted to charge Ward for the room using the credit card details he had supplied when he made the booking, but the transaction did not go through.

The prison in the Lincolnshire Fen village of Freiston was then alerted and arrangements were made for Ward to be transferred to a more secure jail.

‘He discovered some photographs had been uploaded on Facebook which showed the two of them consuming the contents of the mini-bar and noticed that the defendant’s Facebook profile showed he was living at HMP Strange ways.
Daily mail.