DRUG dealers and a fraudster who conned a man with learning difficulties out of his home will be among 1,100 lags released early next week.
The latest batch of inmates deemed eligible for release under the Government scheme to ease prison overcrowding will walk free on Tuesday.
Fraudster Sukhdev Singh is expected to be among those let out[/caption]
For the first time, it includes convicts sentenced to more than five years who have served just 40 per cent of their terms behind bars.
Sukhdev Singh is expected to be among those let out after serving barely two years of his five-and-a-half year sentence for four counts of fraud.
The 73-year-old was jailed in May 2022 after persuading a man with the mental capacity of a 12-year-old to sign over his £300,000 inherited house.
James Birch, 35, is also set to be freed despite being sentenced to six years in prison in February 2022 for supplying Class A drugs and money laundering.
He facilitated sales of up to 20kg of heroin in the Netherlands while collecting hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash, Liverpool crown court heard.
Surrey and Hampshire county lines drug dealer Josh Lake will be freed too despite serving less than three years of a six year and ten-month sentence.
The 26-year-old admitted conspiring to supply Class A drugs and money laundering in January 2022.
All three were due to be released next Spring after serving half of their sentences but were brought forward under the SDS40 scheme.
The latest release will coincide with Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, launching a major sentencing policy review to further ease the cells crisis.
It will be led by David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary who announced plans to scrap custodial sentences of less than a year in 2019.
