Surrey Police confirmed this afternoon (November 5) that 35-year-old William ‘Billy’ Smith was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Monday (November 3).
The news comes hours after reports of Algerian man Brahim Kaddour-Cherif also being wrongly freed from the prison last Wednesday (October 29).
Smith was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences at Croydon Crown Court on Monday (3 November), during which he appeared via a live video link from HMP Wandsworth.
He is described as white, bald, and clean shaven.
Smith was last seen wearing a navy long sleeve jumper with the Nike brand ‘tick’ across the front in white, navy blue tracksuit bottoms with a Nike ‘tick’ in white on the left pocket, and black trainers.
The police claim Smith has links to Woking but could be anywhere in Surrey.
The force is carrying out a number of enquiries at pace to try and locate him.
It is not clear when the police were made aware of Smith’s release.
The Metropolitan Police today confirmed it was only informed about the erroneous release of Kaddour-Cherif yesterday (November 4).
According to court documents seen by this paper, Kaddour-Cherif was in court after an incident at Lloyd Park in Walthamstow on March 30, 2024.
Documents state that he had intentionally exposed his genitals, intending that someone would see them and be caused alarm or distress.
He pleaded guilty to this on July 12, 2024, and was taken to London Crown Court for sentencing.
If you have seen Smith, or have any information which could help the police find him, contact the force by calling 101 quoting SYP-20251105-0472.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, has questioned how these incidents occured.
Her questions follow a report by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) in 2024 which said prison staff “displayed an inability to account for prisoners during the working day”.
This is despite an investment of almost £900,000 since Khalife’s alleged escape in September 2023.
The report, published on last year, noted that HMP Wandsworth had come to be “symbolic of the problems that characterise what is worst about the English prison system”.
According to the report, the prison was over capacity, in appalling conditions and record keeping “was so poor”.
