A DRUGS gang member who escaped from jail was found in Burnley town centre 10 days later, a court was told.

Bradley Turner, 20, was sent to custody for four years and three months on March 30, 2012 for his part in a plot to supply cannabis for commercial profit.

He walked out of Thorn Cross Young Offenders’ Institution in Warrington, where he had enjoyed ‘enhanced status’ and had been learning to be a gym instructor.

Staff were alerted when he didn’t turn up for his tea on March 31 and Turner was arrested on April 10, after being chased by police in Burnley.

He will now serve the rest of his sentence locked up and will not be allowed home leave, the town’s crown court heard.

Turner, of Stoneyhurst Avenue, Burnley, admitted escape and was given another month inside.

He was originally locked up after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis between December 2009 and January 2011 and possessing the drug with intent to supply.

Sarah Statham, prosecuting, said in January this year, Turner had been placed at Thorn Cross, which had a ‘fairly open’ policy.

She said he was due for release next May 15.

Philip Holden, for Turner, said he had received a fairly long sentence for somebody of his age.

He said: “The reason he was at the Young Offenders' Institution was because he had received enhanced prison status, something which he is, remarkably, able to retain.”

Mr Holden said the defendant had been on gym, first aid, painting and decorating and bricklaying courses in detention.

He said: “Not only will he receive a short sentence, he is now in closed conditions. He was eligible, in the near future, for home leave but that will not be available to him. For somebody of his age, it only needs to be a very short sentence indeed.”

Judge Jonathan Gibson, who had read a letter from the defendant, said Turner realised just how foolish he had been.

He said the defendant would now be serving his sentence in closed conditions for the most part and would not be eligible for certain privileges.

The judge told him: “For somebody your age, serving four years and three months is a considerable punishment in itself.

“Given it was a walk out, rather than an attempt to escape by trying to break out in some way, it seems a short consecutive sentence is sufficient.”