Pair Sacked For Putting Tag On False Leg

Two security workers have been sacked after placing an electronic tag on an offender's false leg, allowing him to remove them and breach his curfew.

Christopher Lowcock had wrapped the prosthetic limb in a bandage and fooled staff when they set up the monitoring device at his Rochdale home.

The 29-year-old was under a court-imposed curfew for drinking and driving offences as well as having an offensive weapon.

But he was able to breach the order simply by removing his false leg - and the tag - after the workers at Government-contracted private security firm G4S failed to carry out the proper tests.

By the time G4S managers became suspicious of the situation last month, Lowcock was back in custody having been arrested for driving while banned and without insurance.

A G4S spokeswoman said: "In this individual's case two employees failed to adhere to the correct procedures when installing the tag. Had they done so, they would have identified his prosthetic leg."

She said: "The two employees responsible for the installation of the tag have now been dismissed."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice explained: "Two thousand offenders are tagged every week and incidents like this are very rare.

"Procedures were clearly not followed in this case and G4S have taken action against the staff involved."

G4S is the world's largest security firm and runs a number of private prisons across the UK.

The Crawley based company is due to take-over Birmingham Prison in October when it will be the first facility transferred from the public to the private sector.

In 2010, three G4S employees operating at Heathrow airport were interviewed by police following the death of Jimmy Mubenga, a refugee being deported to Angola.