Reliance has admitted another error

Clive Fairweather was speaking as the Scottish National Party again called for the justice minister to resign over the running of prison escort services.

Private firm Reliance accepted it was largely responsible for releasing a man in error at Motherwell District Court.

Instead of remaining in custody, he was allowed to go free.

He had appeared at the court from custody in connection with a fine and should have been held to appear later at Hamilton Sheriff Court on a separate charge.

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson has asked for a full report.

If I had 50p for every prisoner that was liberated in error by the Scottish Prison Service and the police when they were doing the job I think I'd be quite a rich man Clive Fairweather Former chief inspector of prisons

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) confirmed the incident and said an inquiry was under way.

An SPS spokesman said there would now be a further appearance by the man at a later date.

Reliance Custodial Services has been operating prisoner transfers in the west of Scotland since the start of April.

Mr Fairweather said as many as 50 people a year could be released in error under the old regime.

Mr Fairweather said: "If I had 50p for every prisoner that was liberated in error by the Scottish Prison Service and the police when they were doing the job I think I'd be quite a rich man.

"I'm afraid minor problems like this will continue."

Public money

He said there was no reason why a private security firm could not run the system and that mistakes would be made amongst thousands of prisoner movements a year.

"My sense of it would be that Reliance is slightly higher than the rate it was before," he said.

"I think they've had something like six in the last month, I think that's higher than it used to be but one might expect that at the start and lets hope that they get it down a bit."

If the minister is too close to this situation to see it objectively, then perhaps it's time that somebody else stepped in and did the job for her Nicola Sturgeon SNP's justice spokeswoman

But the SNP's justice spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon said Ms Jamieson should resign or be sacked.

She told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "We now have a company being paid quite massive sums of public money to do this job.

"They're having to be shadowed by the police and prison service to try and make sure they don't make any more catastrophic mistakes and even so errors are still being made.

"I think it's a fiasco, I think it's time to bring it to an end and if the minister is too close to this situation to see it objectively, then perhaps it's time that somebody else stepped in and did the job for her."

The mix-up comes just weeks after a teenage prisoner went missing from Hamilton Sheriff Court.

Public confidence

James McCormick, 17, was being escorted by private security firm Reliance.

He was back in custody two weeks later and was charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

It also emerged that a female prisoner was released in error at Glasgow District Court last month.

Tory deputy justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said: "If this wasn't so serious, it would be a farce.

"Public confidence in our criminal justice system - and in the minister - is draining rapidly.