One of two Wandsworth prisoners on the run freed in error ‘after surname mix-up’

A prisoner was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth earlier this week because of a surname-mix-up.

William Smith, also known as Billy, was sentenced to four years in jail after being convicted of multiple fraud offences on Monday.

But the 35-year-old was freed from HMP Wandsworth in the affluent south London suburb that same day and remains on the run.

The wrong sentence was put into the system as he shares the same surname as his co-defendant, according to The Mirror.

While William attended court via video uplink, Joseph Smith was on bail and attended court in person, receiving a suspended sentence.

Prison officials tried to correct the error on Monday, only to notify the wrong person about it, with both William and Joseph released.

Surrey Police revealed Smith was on the run on the same day that the authorities said Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian 24-year-old man, was freed last Wednesday from HMP Wandsworth.

Smith has ties to Woking, about 20 miles from central London, but could be in Surrey.

The fraudster has been described as white, bald, and clean shaven and 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 force added: ‘We are carrying out a number of enquiries at pace to try and locate him.’

Haddour-Cherif, who also goes by Ibrahim, was convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure relating to an incident in March that year.

He was handed an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.

Kaddour-Cherif’s most recent jail time was for trespass with intent to steal. 

Metro understands he appeared in court on a charge of failing to comply with sex offender requirements.

Metro also understands that Kaddour-Cherif is not an asylum seeker and entered the UK legally on a visitor’s visa in 2019 but overstayed.

He was in the process of being deported when he was accidentally freed from prison.

The Ministry of Justice told Metro: ‘Releases in error have been increasing for several years and are another symptom of a justice system crisis inherited by this Government.

‘We have introduced mandatory, stronger prisoner release checks to keep our streets safe and protect the public as well as investing record amounts into our courts – including to improve operational assurance.

‘But we are clear that these mistakes must not continue to happen, which is why the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy announced an independent investigation to look at the serious issue of releases in error across the prison estate.’

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