A PRISONER on the run from an open jail hoodwinked police when he gave a false name to officers who found him drunk.

Craig Hawley, from Blackburn, was arrested after being found in Grantham town centre less than 24 hours after he escaped from the category D North Sea Camp open prison 20 miles away.

Andrew Scott, prosecuting, said Hawley gave his brother’s name and details and, as a result, was allowed free with a caution for a public order offence, and was given a travel warrant to get him back to his home town of Black-burn.

But before leaving the police station, Hawley complained of feeling ill and officers took him to Grantham Hosp-ital.

While he was being checked out by doctors, the police national computer revealed that the fingerprints of the man detained actually belonged to Hawley, rather than his brother, and he was arrested as an escaped pris-oner.

Hawley, 24, admitted escaping from custody on 17 September.

He was given a 12-month jail sentence to run concurrently with the indefinite jail sentence he is already serving.

He was originally jailed at Preston Crown Court in January 2010 for grievous bodily harm with intent following an incident in which a 25- year-old was tortured and branded with a hot iron.

Hawley was given an indefinite jail sentence for public protection after the judge described the offence as a brutal, and sadistic, attack which could prop-erly be described as torture.

Judge Sean Morris, passing sentence, told him: “This was a pretty deter-mined attempt to stay at large.”

Michael Attenborough, defending, said Hawley found life difficult at North Sea Camp and was targeted by other prisoners who offered him drugs and threatened him.

“He feared for his safety.

“The escape was an impulsive reac-tion to him struggling with the new circumstances he found himself in.”