McLean is believed to have fled to South Africa

Roderick McLean is believed to have fled to South Africa after escaping from an open prison.

A customs officer was killed during McLean's arrest, on board a boat laden with cannabis at sea off the Caithness coast in July 1996.

The 59-year old gang leader was six years into his sentence at Leyhill open prison in Gloucestershire.

'Completely inexplicable'

Customs officer Alastair Soutar, 47, died when he was crushed between two boats in the operation to apprehend McLean.

His brother Brian Soutar is demanding action. He told BBC Scotland: "I think it is appalling that he was allowed to be in an open prison, which I or my family were not aware of.

"I gather that when you are put in an open prison, you are put there on trust - if it wasn't so serious, it would be laughable."

He added: "What our extradition treaties with South Africa are, I don't know but I would hope there are some."

McLean had originally been held at Edinburgh's Saughton prison

Mclean had been moved to Leyhill, a minimum security Category D jail, from Saughton Prison, in Edinburgh.

He was being held as a Category B inmate at Saughton but prison chiefs decided he would not try to escape and he was transferred.

Mark Leech, editor of The Prisons Handbook, the annual guide to the penal system of England and Wales, hit out at prison bosses.

He said: "I make no bones about it, this is completely inexplicable.

"I cannot remember a single case where someone serving this kind of sentence, with the amount of money salted away that McLean is alleged to have, has found themselves transferred to an open prison with almost a decade of his sentence left to serve. It stinks."

'Element of trust'

McLean has already been on the run for nearly two months but a Prison Service spokesman denied there had been a cover-up, saying the local Avon and Somerset Police force were informed immediately and the case was being investigated.

The spokesman said assessing the risk and category of a prisoner was down to individual governors.

"In assessing the risk the governor has to consider the risk of absconding or escaping and in that event the danger to the public," he said.

"It involves putting an element of trust in prisoners and some prisoners abuse that trust."

He added that a senior official has been appointed to review the circumstances leading to McLean being moved to Leyhill.

"That includes the circumstances of his transfer from the Scottish Prison Service and his initial security categorisation in England," he said.

Leyhill has a long history of absconding prisoners.