The prisoner earning more than the officers at a Yorkshire jail was exposed today as a York businessman who conspired to defraud Barclays Bank out of £400,000.

Graham Etson, formerly of Wigginton Road, is getting more than £600 a week working on day release in York while serving the final months of a 21-month jail sentence imposed at the Old Bailey last summer.

But, as revealed in Monday's Evening Press, he is paying only £24 a week towards his board and lodging at Wealstun Jail, near Wetherby, under a new re-settlement scheme intended to help rehabilitate such prisoners into society.

Prison Service Director General Richard Tilt said today this was not enough, and revealed he was seeking to change the rules so that contributions from such inmates could be upped.

But he gave full backing to Wealstun's scheme in general, which he said greatly reduced the prospects of a prisoner re-offending on release.

Shadow prisons minister and Ryedale MP, John Greenway, also backed the re-settlement scheme, but said Etson should be paying the full cost of his prison stay - £24,000 a year - out of his salary.

"The tragedy of this story is that what is a very good idea has been brought into public disrepute by what will be seen by many people as something of an abuse."

Former prisons minister Ann Widdecombe told the Evening Press she would have liked to see Etson receiving a lower wage while in prison.

"To a certain extent if you've got professional people in prison, you should not be surprised if their jobs are professional jobs.

"However, having said that, we had one or two cases like this in my time as prisons minister and we always said to the governors please try to tone it down, try and get a more modest job."

The Old Bailey was told last year that Etson, 41, who once lived at Kirby Underdale, near Driffield, obtained loans for almost £400,000 from Barclays to buy a chain of pubs, after falsely claiming he owned 21 residential properties around the UK which he could use as security.

The judge said he became involved in a web of deceit from which he could not extricate himself.

Etson's barrister said the petro-chemical engineer, who had set up his own company in Hong Kong employing 400 people, had been used by people more devious than himself.

The court was told that the bank had received back £70,000, but Barclays' loss still stood at £335,000 before interest. When Barclays was asked today whether it planned any action to recover the outstanding sum, a spokeswoman would only say: "We are looking at this story with interest."

Etson's high salary has sparked angry protests from officers at Wealstun, but inmates on home leave from the jail today were amused by the story.

"Good luck to him. Quite a few screws' noses have been put out of joint," one prisoner told the Evening Press.

But neighbours in Wigginton Road were shocked to hear how much Etson was earning while still in prison. "He earns more than we do," said one pensioner.

Another resident said he had met Etson and thought he was a "real gentleman", but he had been unaware of his background.

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