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LIFE IN TATTERS
I was hauled back to jail for missing bail meeting 20 YEARS ago – I’m just a normal mum & now my life has been ruined
The mum has lost her job and cannot go back to her home in Tunisia until January
A MUM says being recalled to jail over a bail breach almost 20 years ago — a move criticised by prison inspectors — has ruined her life.
Rebecca Lansari, 44, spent three months in jail earlier this year over a missed probation meeting in 2005 following her release from an 18-month term for cheque fraud.
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In 2013 she met her now husband Hassib Lansari, who is from Tunisia, and moved to the country in north Africa to start a new life.
Her son Luca, 18, daughter Naima, 11, and youngest son Aissa, nine, live there while she flew back and forth to work in the UK where wages are higher.
That changed when her case was flagged in the system and she was stopped in March at Gatwick Airport as a “most wanted” and sent to HMP Downview.
The mum has lost her job and cannot go back to Tunisia until January.
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She is looking to raise cash for a legal challenge, saying: “I’ve worked and had an amazing life and I don’t anymore. It’s just been ruined.”
The Prison Inspectorate questioned whether her recall to HMP Downview in Surrey was a “sensible use” of resources.
It said: “We monitored the case of a woman who was transferred to Downview on recall for just 12 weeks.
“The recall was for a breach of a licence condition (failure to attend her probation appointment), which had taken place 20 years prior to her recall to Downview.
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“The woman had not committed any further offences in that time and was now a mother, with school-age children and secure employment."
A HM Prison and Probation Service spokesperson said: “In an extremely rare situation, this woman was unlawfully at large since 2005 and we are reviewing the circumstances behind it.”
The incident happened within the last 12 months but has only now come to light as the Independent Monitoring Board suggested it was a poor use of stretched resources when many prisons are full to breaking point.
Inspectors found the jail in Banstead, Surrey, was transferring women to an open prisons as a "knee-jerk, short-term" solution to population pressure.
However, their report added: "She lost her job in the community while in Downview.
"She was not allocated any work or other activities during her time in the prison."
The report also stated there is a "large churn" of prisoners at the jail which means more women coming and going through its doors.
This means that many couldn't be given the attention they needed by prison workers.
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Lansari is raising money to launch a legal battle, writing on : "My life was almost perfect, I was working and paying tax, contributing towards society and now I have absolutely nothing."
The mum-of-three added: "My children are with my husband, their father, in Tunisia but they all financially rely on me too, causing me more worry and stress being unable to not only provide for them but also be with them."
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