Essex man escapes prison after staff fooled by fake email

A fraudster has been jailed after he was wrongly released from prison when staff were fooled by a fake document.

The document purporting to be from the Royal Courts of Justice was emailed to HMP Chelmsford as part of a conspiracy by Junead Ahmed to escape in June 2023.

The 36-year-old, from Shenfield, Essex, was at large for 43 hours before being found hiding in his loft.

Ahmed, who was awaiting sentencing for fraud at the time he was released, has been jailed for three years and three months after admitting conspiracy to escape lawful custody.

The fake document was sent from an email address ending “.org” rather than “.gov”, Chelmsford Crown Court was told earlier.

Prosecutor Jerry Hayes said it “wasn’t a very good forgery” but “staff at HMP Chelmsford were fooled” by it.

Ahmed was found after the prison was then emailed further fake documents attempting to secure the release of two more prisoners. When staff realised they were forgeries, they realised that Ahmed had been wrongfully released.

The follow-up fake documents were attempting to free Charlie Whittaker, 28, from Harwich, Essex and Adam Mohamed, 29, from Southwark, south London, who were both on remand at the time.

Judge Mary Loram described Ahmed as the “prime mover” in the case and jailed him in his absence after he refused to attend court on Monday.

The judge said the case “undermines the public trust in the criminal justice system”, and it was “undoubtedly a well-planned, sophisticated plot”.

She also jailed 20-year-old Aaryan Noor Ali, of Monteagle Avenue, Barking, east London, who she described as the creator of the forged documents, for two years and two months.

Ahmed, Noor Ali, Whittaker, Charlotte Whittaker and Ahmed’s wife, Nazash Akhtar, all admitted conspiracy to escape lawful custody at earlier hearings.

Nazash Akhtar, 38, was given a suspended jail sentence of two years and ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation requirement days. The judge said she had been under the direction of her husband, and there was no evidence she was involved in the attempts to release the other two men.

Charlie Whittaker did not attend Monday’s hearing and is due to be sentenced on December 16.

His mother, Charlotte Whittaker, 50, from Kirby Cross, near Frinton, Essex, had a “more peripheral role” in supplying a “means of communication”, the judge said, and she was given a 12-month suspended sentence and told to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and 15 rehabilitation requirement days.

Mohamed had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to attempting to escape lawful custody. He was given a 10-month suspended prison term and told to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation requirement days.