An escaped prisoner who made it back to Teesside by hitching lifts hundreds of miles has been given a longer sentence.
Gary Burgess, 50, a burglar from Grangetown, who was serving his 10-year sentence in an open prison, will now go to a tougher lock-up.
He was given double figures at Teesside Crown Court on 14 October 2011 when he asked for 55 burglaries to be taken into consideration.
But he became a trusted prisoner and he was moved to an open prison HMP Sudbury in Derbyshire and his earliest release date was April 18 next year.
Prosecuter Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court today that Burgess walked out on December 18 and he was reported as an escaper.
Two days later he was found in the garden of a house on Grisedale Crescent, Grangetown, by a police officer.
Burgess, who was from Grangetown, told police that the reason for his escape was that he owed £150 for a drug debt to other inmates.
Mrs Haigh added: “He said that they had asked him to collect a parcel containing alcohol from a man the following day, and if he did that the debt would be written-off.
“He said that he had become addicted to a legal high Black Mamba in prison. He said that if he had not been caught he would have handed himself in in the next few days.
“He said that he thumbed a lift back to his home area the North-east.”
Burgess had 30 convictions for 111 offences of violence, dishonesty and burglaries.
Julian Gaskin, defending, said that Burgess knew that he had lost his prison benefits and that he would be getting a consecutive sentence for the escape.
The judge Recorder Ray Singh told Burgess: “The courts have said that it has to be a consecutive sentence.
“You were only at large for for a very short period of time.
“The real punishment for you is that you have lost all privileges for all the good work you have done, and it is highly likely that you will now remain in a more strict regime than you were.”
Burgess was given a consecutive three months jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to escape.
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