ALMOST 200 prisoners have been freed BY MISTAKE in just five years, it emerged last night.
And those released include murders and sex offenders, statistics show.

Thë blunders were blamed on hard-pressed staff in Britain's overcrowded jails not having the time to make proper checks.

Tory justice spokesman Dominic Grieve said: "These releases can have devastating consequences.

"As prisons have become more overcrowded, staff overworked and transfers more frequent, the number of erroneous releases has shot up.

"This is as a direct consequence of Labour's incompetent mismanagement of the justice system."

Just last week murder suspect Jason Bethell, 31, was accidentally freed from Chelmsford jail in Essex. He was banged up again only after surrendering to police.

Another 192 lags had already been let out in error between January 2005 and September this year, according to figures released by Justice Minister Maria Eagle. They included:

Thief TERENCE CLEGG, who was 24 when he was freed from Durham jail in October 2008 after being mistaken for his 51-year-old dad Terence Snr, held in the same prison.

And RAHEEM AHMED, wrongly freed in Birmingham in August 2007 after serving a week of a six-month sentence for violent affray. The late delivery of a photograph was blamed.

Earlier BOBBY PHIPPS had been released from Manchester's Strangeways jail in November 2004 after only four days on remand when facing six charges of attempted murder.

The 22-year-old was rearrested and given a life sentence.

A spokesman for Justice Secretary Jack Straw said: "Of course every such error is a serious matter.

"But they represent a tiny proportion of releases in a prison system which deals with thousands and thousands of such releases each year."

A Prison Service spokesman added: "We have taken action to tighten processes and focus managers' attention.

"Prisoners released in error are normally returned to custody by the police to continue to service their sentence.

"None of those released in error during 2009 remains unlawfully at large."