A murderer was found to have gone two months without a tag after claiming his legs were too swollen for an ankle monitor.
It comes as criminals in England and Wales are going unmonitored for months after their release due to “chaos” within the tagging system, an investigation has uncovered.
An undercover journalist, employed to install and oversee electronic tags on recently released offenders, was frequently dispatched to incorrect locations – including cases involving a murderer and a paedophile.
The Channel 4 Dispatches investigation also revealed that another convicted murderer remained without a tag for over two months, having claimed that swelling in his legs made it impossible to wear an ankle monitor.
The undercover journalist, employed to install and oversee electronic tags on recently released offenders, was frequently dispatched to incorrect locations
CHANNEL 4
One offender was accused of removing her tag to go on holiday and bragging about it to nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok.
Another was reportedly overheard saying he had torn off his tag and could now do as he pleased.
The Times also uncovered that a drug dealer was able to run a county lines operation while accumulating 201 violations of his electronic tag conditions.
The Government previously claimed that all prisoners released under its early release scheme last year were tagged within 53 days.
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However, the investigation found that one burglar – freed under the scheme to alleviate prison overcrowding – went 78 days without being fitted with a tag.
The Dispatches team went undercover at the Electronic Monitoring Service (EMS), which is operated by Serco under a £51 million-a-year contract with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to manage the tagging and monitoring of offenders.
Serco took over the role in May last year, replacing Capita as the sole provider of these services in England and Wales.
Currently, around 20,000 individuals are being monitored with tags, and the government is reportedly aiming to expand that number.
Currently, around 20,000 individuals are being monitored with tags, and the government is reportedly aiming to expand that number
GETTY
The investigation took place in Teesside, the area with the highest rate of violent crime in the UK, following insider reports that the electronic tagging system was in “chaos.”
Lucy Richards, the undercover journalist, worked for four weeks late last year as a field monitoring officer with Serco, responsible for tagging recently released offenders. During that period, she fitted 16 tags.
When a prisoner released on licence breaches tagging conditions, EMS sends a notification to the Probation Service, which then decides whether the individual should be recalled to prison.
One such case involved John Potter, a convicted murderer, who was found to have gone without a tag for at least two months after claiming that swelling in his legs prevented him from wearing an alcohol-monitoring device.
Potter was ordered to serve a minimum of 12 and a half years in prison after stabbing his flatmate to death in a drunken attack in 2007.
In 2018, he escaped from an open prison before turning himself in two days later.
The undercover reporter was dispatched to Potter’s address after he failed to submit the necessary documentation to support his claim about a medical issue with his leg – but he wasn’t at home when she arrived.
Although being away from the property did not constitute a breach of his licence conditions, the Probation Service could have considered recalling him in light of the missing medical evidence.
John Potter was ordered to serve a minimum of 12 and a half years in prison after stabbing his flatmate to death in a drunken attack in 2007
DERBYSHIRE POLICE
Serco stated that if someone claimed a medical exemption, they were unable to fit a tag and that it was not their responsibility to question or verify such claims.
Potter’s probation officer has since applied to the Parole Board to have the tagging requirement removed from his licence conditions.
According to the Ministry of Justice, supervision has been stepped up.
Measures now include more frequent visits from probation officers, placement in staffed accommodation, and a referral to drug and alcohol support services.
Serco is required to attempt tagging prisoners within two days of their release, with any individual not tagged within three days being classified as a backlog case.
Using freedom of information requests, Dispatches found that on a single day in October last year, the backlog had grown to 4,726 cases. Serco responded by saying this figure did not represent the “much lower” average seen on most days.
In November, Prisons Minister Lord Timpson stated that the backlog had since been “reduced to normal levels.”
Throughout the investigation, the undercover reporter was sent to numerous incorrect locations, and said she thought criminals were “running the show” as they could not be tagged if they did not open the door.
The MoJ said Serco’s performance had been ‘unacceptable’, revealing that ministers had met with its senior leaders to demand action to improve standards
PA
A second undercover reporter discovered that Serco was manually transferring data between systems, which resulted in incorrect addresses being entered.
In addition, one employee admitted in a secretly filmed video that she has accidentally sent tagging officers to a dead person’s house, which upset their “traumatised” relatives.
Serco’s chief executive Anthony Kirby said the company had inherited a significant backlog of untagged prisoners, record numbers of people being monitored and the early release schemes.
He said: “Despite these challenges, we fully acknowledge the responsibility we have to get it right and are committed to protecting public safety. Serco has invested heavily in this contract and has not made a penny in profit to date.
“We are tagging a record number of people and by the end of last year our performance had improved and it was publicly recognised to be at an acceptable level.”
The MoJ said Serco’s performance had been “unacceptable”, revealing that ministers had met with its senior leaders to demand action to improve standards.
A spokesman said: “We will hold Serco to account, with further financial penalties imposed should our expectations not be met.”