A self-proclaimed ‘Kuwaiti Sheikh’ who was jailed for a ‘£3million money laundering scheme’ has bragged he had a ‘good life behind bars’ after being granted an early release by the Labour government.
The man, who identified himself as Sheikh Yaqub Al Sabah and claims to be a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family, was hugged enthusiastically by some of his ten children as he left HMP Wandsworth in a Lamborghini.
Al Sabah said he was jailed for ten years for the money laundering offence and was released after four years and five months – along with hundreds of other prisoners across Britain today.
The 49-year-old said he was able to get hold of a number of luxuries whilst locked up, including ‘two or three hundred mobile phones, a firestick and a fridge’, because he had access to money.
Speaking about his release outside the prison gates, Al Sabah said: ‘I was sentenced to 14 and a half years but I pleaded guilty and got 10 years. I should have done five years, but with the new law I did four years and five months.
The man, who identified himself as Sheikh Yaqub Al Sabah, left Wandsworth Prison in a Lamborghini today
He gave a thumbs-up as he was driven away from Category B HMP Wandsworth
The Lamborghini Urus, which Al Sabah was driven home in, was seen parked outside HMP Wandsworth in south London this morning
‘I didn’t believe it [when I was told I was being released]. My door was opened and I said: “Are you sure?” The officer said: “uncle, we are going to miss you.”
‘I am happy to see my family, my people. I will go back to my family, to a different life. Now I have a new future, I am going to have a good future.’
Asked if he was going to drive away in the Lamborghini which collected him, Al Sabah said: ‘My cousin is going to drive it – I don’t have insurance, I don’t want to go back inside.’
Al Sabah spoke briefly about his time inside, claiming he had access to money which enabled him to get hold of luxuries and have a ‘good life’.
He said: ‘Anyone who has money inside, he can survive. Anything you want, you can have it. Any food from outside, it can come to you.
‘I can’t say (who I pay), but anything you want you can have it inside.
‘I’ve been caught with two or three hundred mobile phones. I have a big record inside. I have satellite inside, a Firestick, a heater, a fridge, everything inside my cell.
‘Because I have the money – anything you want, pay money you have it. If you don’t have money you are never going to survive.’
He added: ‘I am part of the Kuwait Royal Family, I have a good life outside. My life is perfect – the only mistake I have for this small problem (is prison).’
His cousin, who gave his name as Ahmed and works in the family’s concierge business, said: ‘We will just be having a family dinner (to celebrate), with all his kids – a taste of freedom. He could go home in the car if he wants, he could drive it.
‘When you’re inside the only thing you can think about is smelling the fresh air. The smallest things in life become the finest things in life.’
Al Sabah was one of hundreds of prisoners who were greeted by family members and a bevy of high-end supercars including Lamborghinis, Rolls-Royces and Bentleys as they walked out of the gates having been granted early release.
More than 1,200 convicts who have served 40 per cent of their sentences were freed today under a scheme to tackle prison overcrowding, following on from 1,750 who were released last month.
Many of those were released lavished praise on Sir Keir Starmer for letting them out early, but there were some coming out who said they would probably end up back behind bars as they were being released with nowhere to go to.
Convicted armed kidnapper Daniel Dowling-Brooks shouted, ‘Big up Keir Starmer’, when released this morning and posed on a £150,000 brand new Bentley outside jail.
Convicted armed kidnapper Daniel Dowling-Brooks was seen giving a double thumbs up as he posed next to a Bentley after being released from HMP Swaleside in Kent this morning
There was delight on the face of another ex-inmate as he left HMP Liverpool this morning
And a convicted drug dealer freed from HMP Holme House in Teesside told how he was had ‘a couple of girls who I might go and see’, after being ‘flat out on spice for two and half years’, adding: I’ve come out skinnier than when I went in.’
About 25 prisoners were seen being released from HMP Ford in West Sussex, where cars arriving at the jail included a £350,000 white Rolls Royce Cullinan.
When the car travelled away from the prison and the driver was asked by the Sun who the passenger in the back was, he joked: ‘The Pope.’
However, others were not so cheery, with one homeless man released from HMP Wandsworth today saying it was ‘more than likely’ he would be returned to prison as ‘I haven’t got a house’.
Today’s emergency release of inmates to prevent overcrowding in prisons is the final tranche of the early release scheme, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman has now said.
Dowling-Brooks, 29, was released early by seven weeks today at HMP Swaleside in Kent, having been handed a seven-year sentence for kidnap and GBH.
He was among a group of ten friends outside the jail this morning, with a strong smell of cannabis in the air.
The father-of-two said, ‘I love my life’, as he posed on the car and also next to a Mercedes G Wagon, priced at £100,000.
He said: ‘I’m a dad of two so I’m out now and I’m very happy. I’m going to be good.’
Talking about his crimes, he revealed: ‘I kidnapped someone who owed by friend money. I tied him up and had him at gunpoint. I beat him up.
Daniel Dowling-Brooks said, ‘I love my life’, as he posed on the car and also next to a Mercedes G Wagon, priced at £100,000, at HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent today
Daniel Dowling-Brooks was greeted by his mother Sarah outside HMP Swaleside
He leaned back on the Bentley as he and friends celebrated his early release today
Men were also pictured leaving HMP Leyhill in Gloucestershire this morning
‘It was bad but not as bad as they made out. I’m so sorry for it though. I’m changed. Big up Keir Starmer, I am delighted to be released early. I am delighted.
‘I can’t wait to go McDonald’s. That’s where we’re all going now. I’m free and can go wherever I want now. It’s amazing. I could not believe they are letting me out this early. I’ve got my girl with me.’
His mother Sarah Dowling-Brooks, who had been waiting for him, said: ‘He’s going to be good now. He has done his time. I’m so happy he is home.’
Another prisoner thanked Sir Keir as he was released from HMP Thameside in south London after serving less than a third of his sentence.
The inmate, who refused to give his name, spent just three months of his 10-month sentence for theft by false representation at the Category B jail.
Pumping his fist as he left the gate, he said: I’m coming out early – thank you, Keir Starmer! I’m a Labour voter, I think they’re going to be a lot better for us.’
He said he was going straight home to see his children.
Ahmed, himself a former prisoner at Wandsworth while on remand before being acquitted of ABH, also slammed conditions inside.
The 27-year-old said: ‘They have been treated like dogs in there. It is terrible conditions, it’s like they give you their own punishment.
One prisoner leaving HMP Liverpool this morning lifted his jacket to cover his face
Another departing from the same institution this morning his his face with his bag
Men are seen outside HMP Leyhill in Gloucestershire this morning on the day more than 1,200 inmates are expected to be freed under the early release scheme
‘Sometimes you don’t come out of your cell or get a shower, or you come out for like 30 minutes a day. It’s not enough.
‘There are rats in the room, the toilets are blocked. I’ve got nothing good to say about the place.’
However, one person released from Wandsworth was not so optimistic about his chances.
Jamie, 52, who has spent ‘most of my life’ behind bars was freed – although not as part of the early release scheme – with no accommodation lined up.
Asked if he was likely to end up back in prison, he said: ‘More than likely.’
He said plans to release prisoners under house arrest were ‘alright, but I haven’t got a house.’
He said what would help him would be ‘getting off drugs’, adding: ‘Being on the streets is really hard.’
Another inmate was reunited with his children who ran at him with a big hug outside HMP Swaleside, in Kent – while a different prisoner there was welcomed with an embrace as he was picked up in a black Rolls Royce by a group in matching hoodies.
A number of men could be seen walking down the road with bin bags slung over their shoulders, one also shaking hands with a security guard.
One man appeared to be giving a thumbs up as a group departed from HMP Liverpool
A significant group of people were seen leaving HMP Liverpool across the morning
They were leaving the prison estates on the Isle of Sheppey, which is home to HMP Swaleside, HMP Standford Hill and HMP Elmley.
A white Bentley and black Mercedes G-wagon were among the cars seen coming to pick up people outside the prisons.
Meanwhile, a crime family were reunited as a drug dealer with 113 convictions was freed from prison under Sir Keir Starmer’s early release scheme – and his mother told of his gratitude towards the Prime Minister.
Prolific crook James Sharp, 32, was locked up for five and a half years after leading police on a high-speed chase in February 2022.
He was today released from prison three and a half months early – having racked up 60 convictions for drug dealing, burglary and dangerous driving.
Sharp was met at the prison gates by his mother Amanda Sharp, who was locked up herself in 2022 for dealing.
Released in groups of up to six at a time, fellow inmates at HMP Holme House in Teesside celebrated freedom with cries of delight as they passed through the large retracting metal doors.
Holme House, a men’s training and resettlement prison, has an operational capacity for 1,179 prisoners.
A court previously heard Amanda Sharp was ‘at the centre of a little family drug dealing business, which includes her son and grandson, and possibly others’.
She and her son James hugged today outside the Category C jail, where about 20 prisoners had been released by 10am.
Posing with his thumb up, Sharp, from Stockton, said he was excited to see his son Logan.
Amanda Sharp posed with her son James Sharp after his release from prison this morning
James Sharp was today released from prison three and a half months early – having racked up 60 convictions for drug dealing, burglary and dangerous driving
James Sharp and his mother Amanda Sharp were seen embracing as he emerged from jail
James Sharp said today: ‘I’m happy to be out. Drugs are rife in the prison. I’ve been flat out on spice for two and half years. I’ve come out skinnier than when I went in’
James Sharp (left) was greeted by his mother Amanda Sharp (right) as he was freed today from HMP Holme House in Teesside – both have served time behind bars
Inmates have also been leaving HMP Manchester this morning as the release scheme aimed at curbing prison overcrowding continues
Men hauling bags with them were pictured departing from HMP Liverpool
He said: ‘I want to try and go the Christian route and help other people. I converted about 10 years ago inside.
‘I’ve got my own flat in Stockton from probation and I’ve got a couple of girls who I might go and see.
‘I’m happy to be out. Drugs are rife in the prison. I’ve been flat out on spice for two and half years. I’ve come out skinnier than when I went in.’
His mother Amanda, who was released in July having served half of a five year sentence for drugs offences, revealed she had another son on remand awaiting trial, having been arrested by police for taking part in riots.
She said he was on release from prison for a six-year jail term when he was detained in Middlesbrough in August.
Her grandson, 18, meanwhile, is HMP Deerbolt in County Durham.
She said: ‘I’m fine. I won’t be going back inside. But I don’t know about James. He’s got a flat to go to this time, so he’s done alright. He’s got it own flat, so probation has helped him.
‘It’s a rough prison. There are people off their heads on spice constantly. You get more drugs in jail than you do on the outside.
‘I spoke to James yesterday, he’s excited to come out. He’s grateful to Keir Starmer. If I can help it, he will be staying on the straight and narrow.
‘My other son’s in HMP Hull, for the riots. He just got out after six years then got remanded for the riots. He didn’t even do nowt either.’
Another man was seen keeping his head down on walking out of HMP Liverpool
Someone else looked more visibly pleased to be on his way out of HMP Liverpool
A court previously heard how James Sharp drove into the path of oncoming traffic in his Audi A3 while trying to evade police.
He led officers along the A66 in Middlesbrough, avoiding near head-on collisions as he raced along the wrong side of the carriageway.
His home was later raided and a haul of drugs discovered, including cocaine, cannabis, pregabalin and several bottles of ammonia, along with more than £2,000 in cash discovered and seized.
Sentencing, Judge Howard Crowson told Sharp: ‘Your manner of driving was erratic sometimes fast and often quite dangerous. People had to avoid head on collisions with you as you steered away from them.
‘In the end police had to force you from the road and even then you ran on foot.’
Meanwhile, drug dealers extended their thanks to Sir Keir Starmer as they walked out of Strangeways in Manchester thanks to the early release scheme.
One criminal walked into the arms of his mates who had arrived in a fleet of flash Audi motors, having spent the morning listening to gangster rap and smoking cannabis outside HMP Manchester
As his bags were thrown into the boot of an Audi estate, the released prisoner said to the Mail, ‘I just want to say thanks to the government’, before a friend added: ‘Yes, thanks so much.’
Another prisoner, who was welcomed by relatives, said, ‘I want to say thanks to Keir Starmer for this’, before nodding politely when asked whether he would vote Labour at the next general election.
Girlfriends and elderly relatives were among those gathering today outside the Victorian jail which has the official name HMP Manchester.
One man, who said he was waiting for his son, told the Mail: ‘It is what it is. The prisons are broke now, son, and they need more space. You won’t hear anyone complaining.’
A prisoner released today from HMP Wandsworth, who gave his name as Harry, said he expects to be recalled again because he will not attend probation. His original offence was shoplifting several bottles of wine.
A man is seen outside HMP Wandsworth in south London today as prison releases continue
The 27-year-old, who is homeless, said the early release scheme was ‘bulls***’, saying: ‘They’re letting the wrong people out and getting the wrong people back in.
‘My original offence was shoplifting but I was drunk. I was on the early release last time but recalled just because I wouldn’t go to probation.
‘I don’t do probation. They do rehabilitation. If you’re a serial offender then you get rehab. ‘It’s the probation that’s f***ed.’
Speaking to the Sun, he added: ‘I’m a shoplifter and a bit of a dickhead. I won’t be going. I’m going to get recalled again.
‘I’ve been homeless for years and will be going to Westminster because that’s where all the homeless support is.’
Asked his views on the early release scheme, he said: ‘I think it’s fair for low level crime like myself.
‘But then obviously I’m on the fence a bit with people getting released early. It should be low level criminals.’
Another freed inmate told this morning how he actually wanted to ‘go straight back in’ to HMP Pentonville in north London, after being left homeless with ‘nowhere to go’.
Connor Richings, 31, told reporters: ‘They’ve let me out with nowhere to stay, they’re leaving me with nowhere to go. I’ve got a release of £12, I haven’t even got enough to get to where I’m meant to go to. I just feel like they’re setting us up to fail.
‘To be honest, I want to go straight back in because I ain’t got nowhere to stay and it’s freezing cold out here.
‘They haven’t given me no clothes, I’ve got no tent – I’ve got nothing, I’ve got no way of surviving so to be honest it’s just a bit of a joke. I feel that the system’s failing us.
‘Half of them are not bothered because half of them are going through the same stuff. Half of us are in there for being homeless.
‘We’ve been trying to get help and I haven’t had a probation appointment since I’ve been in there – it’s a system failure, that’s about it.
Describing conditions inside the prison, he added: ‘There’s cockroaches and rats in there, it’s not very nice in there at all. It’s a bit grim in there, to be honest.’
Meanwhile, an abusive husband who was jailed for slashing his wife’s neck with a knife could be released early from prison under the scheme, his victim fears.
Freed prisoner Connor Richings said today he actually wanted to ‘go straight back in’ to HMP Pentonville in north London, after being left homeless with ‘nowhere to go’
Former army sergeant Martin Underwood, 49, was jailed for threatening to kill mother of two Elizabeth Hudson in the kitchen of their family home in Barnsley in April 2021
A legal loophole means he could be set free nine months early, and even be out as early as Christmas this year – much to the dismay of victim Elizabeth Hudson (seen on GMB today)
Former army sergeant Martin Underwood, 49, threatened to kill mother of two Elizabeth Hudson in the kitchen of their family home in Barnsley in April 2021.
He went on to attack another woman while on police bail by placing a bag over her head during a row while they were having sex.
Underwood admitted making threats to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, as well as a charge of non-fatal suffocation. He was jailed last February to six years and three months, with a judge branding him a ‘significant risk’.
‘Highly manipulative and dangerous’ Underwood was also given two indefinite restraining orders.
But it has emerged he could be set free nine months early, and even be out as early as Christmas this year – much to Ms Hudson’s shock and dismay.
She told Good Morning Britain she was ‘incredibly shocked’ when she received a letter ‘out of the blue’ from the Ministry of Justice to notify her that her abusive ex-husband met the criteria for the scheme.
She asked: What message does it send to other abusers? The government talks about violence against women – ‘Let’s treat it as seriously as terrorism, let’s halve the amount of violence against women’.
‘And then they put policies in place that gives a message that actually it’s not really that important, that we don’t need to make this number one priority.’
There is an option for Ms Hudson to request that an ‘exclusion zone’ is put in place for Underwood when he is released, but she says this would then reveal her location to him.
She added: ‘If you’ve been in an abusive relationship you have walked on eggshells.
Elizabeth Hudson told Good Morning Britain she was ‘incredibly shocked’ when she received a letter ‘out of the blue’ from the Ministry of Justice to notify her that her abusive ex-husband met the criteria for the early release scheme
‘You’ve changed your behaviour, and you’ve felt controlled. Then you have this period of peace, this period of freedom where you can walk around and not look over your shoulder – and that’s incredibly precious.
‘But you know there is a time frame on that, but for them [the government] to just reduce that so ridiculously is so unbelievably cruel.’
The early release scheme has reduced the proportion of a sentence most offenders must serve behind bars from 50 per cent to 40 per cent.
There are exclusions for domestic abuse cases such as stalking and non-fatal strangulation.
However, Underwood’s sentence was classed as assault instead of domestic abuse.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman has described today’s prisoner release as the ‘second and final’ early release instalment of the current programme.
Asked whether there could be another scheme for future early releases, he said the Government would now concentrate instead on reforms to the criminal justice system.
The spokesman added: ‘The Government’s focus is now on the reforms to sentencing, to building prison places such that we do not end up in the situation that this Government ended up in when it came into office, where there was risks of police not being able to make the arrests that they needed, and risks that the criminal justice system was going to collapse.’
The spokesman also said: ‘The Prime Minister shares the public’s anger at these scenes and thinks it is shocking that any government should ever inherit the crisis that this government has when it comes to our prisons.
‘But just to be clear, there was no choice not to act. If we had not acted, we would have faced a complete paralysis of the system.
‘Courts unable to send offenders to prison, police unable to make arrests and unchecked criminality on our streets, so the Government clearly could not allow this to happen.’
It was earlier revealed that more than half of the prisoners freed in the first three months of this year, under the previous government, are already back behind bars.
Martin Jones, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation, warned that Labour’s plans to curb prison overcrowding could be undermined by a high level of recalls.
He told how for every 100 inmates released in the first quarter of 2024, 56 had been brought back to prison for reoffending or breaching their licence.
The SDS40 was meant to free up to 5,500 prison places but fears of further over-crowding have been fuelled by the large numbers of people jailed following this summer’s widespread riots across the country.
And the number of recalls will cause further problems, Mr Jones has now forecast – amid concerns jails could run out of spaces again next July.
He said: ‘My assessment is that there is a significant risk that the amount of space that has been created by the SDS40 changes will be reduced as a result of the high level of recalls that we have been seeing historically over a number of years.
‘I see no indication that there will be fewer recalls as a result of this. There will be some benefit but it will be quickly chipped at and is the reason why a hard look at recalls is necessary in the long term.’
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered a sentencing review, led by her Conservative predecessor David Gauke.
She hopes this will guarantee there would be sufficient space to imprison the most dangerous criminals and expand punishments outside jails.
The minister insisted rates of recall in the cohort of early releases were ‘broadly in line’ with usual prison releases, in response to Mr Jones’s comments.
Ms Mahmood told LBC: ‘We’ll do a statistics release in due course, as we normally would, on rates of recall and on reoffending in our prison estate.
‘What I can tell you is our early assessment is that the rates of recall and potential reoffending in the cohort that has been released as a result of the emergency release measures is broadly in line with what we would expect.’
She said there was ‘no doubt’ that recalls put pressure on the prison system but said they are an ‘important mechanism’, adding: Because at the end of the day, when somebody is still serving a sentence but they’re not in prison, they’re out in the community, they are subject to strict licence conditions.
‘You break those conditions, you do go back to prison.’
Almost 40 prisoners were incorrectly freed under Sir Keir Starmer’s early release scheme after a system error, the Ministry of Justice last month admitted.
Those mistakenly freed included stalkers and domestic abusers but Ms Mahmood today said the issues had now been ‘ironed out’.
She told Times Radio that those wrongly freed were sentenced according to an older act of Parliament and the error was down to a ‘mistake in the application of the law’.
She said: ‘All 37 were returned to custody, and that operational part of the system actually ended up working exactly as it should.
‘But those mistakes have now been ironed out, and I’m confident that the releases taking place will now be exactly as we need them to be, and victims who are required to be notified will be notified.’
She said it had been a ‘curveball’ that the Government could not have foreseen.
Ms Mahmood added: ‘That issue has been sorted and it has been resolved, and for the releases that are taking place today, that is not a mistake that will occur again.’
But she admitted that emergency measures such as releasing prisoners early needed more done to help prison overcrowding, telling BBC Breakfast: ‘Even pulling these emergency release levers, it only buys us some time.
‘It’s not going to make the problem, the underlying problem, go away, and that is because the demand for prison places is going up by around 4,500 every single year.’
She said that the Government was committed to building to create 14,000 extra prison places that the last Conservative Government ‘failed to deliver’.
She went on: ‘But it’s not going to be enough, because this is not a crisis that you can build your way out of, because the demand is going up simply, very, very quickly, and that’s why I’ve announced a sentencing review today.
‘It’s why we need to think more long term about how we bring that down, because we cannot build our way out of this crisis.’
Labour will open the door to wider use of community punishments for criminals – including house arrest – as part of the new reviews.
Ms Mahmood has said extending technology such as electronic tags would see the creation of a ‘prison outside prison’ for non-dangerous offenders.
She today said the review of prison sentencing aims to expand the range of punishments outside prison, but would not confirm the overall goal is to reduce levels of incarceration in the UK.
Ms Mahmood told BBC Radio 4’s Today: ‘We have to expand the use of punishment outside prison, and I’m very clear that that has to maintain the confidence of the public.
‘People still have to know that you are being punished for breaking the laws of our land, even if you’re not serving time in custody.
‘There are real consequences that you really feel the loss of your liberty still.’
Technology including tags is already used to supervise and monitor offenders serving sentences outside prison and the review will look at whether that can be taken further with emerging technologies other countries are using, she said.
But, asked if she was taking a new approach and wanted fewer people incarcerated in Britain, she said that the rate of increase was such that ‘nobody can keep up with demand’.
