Dangerous on-the-run prisoner arrested by armed police at B&B in Yorkshire

Leeds Crown Court heard Liam Gardiner had fled HMP Sudbury sparking a nationwide hunt on March 31.

The 36-year-old had walked out of the Category D open prison in Derbyshire and got a taxi to West Yorkshire where he visited his father due to health concerns.

The court was told that Gardiner then went partying - and he was found at Wentvale B&B in Knottingley, where he had been staying with a woman, two days later.

As he was considered a dangerous prisoner, police scrambled an armed team to the B&B to arrest him.

He was convicted of possessing a firearm with an intent to endanger life in 2017.

Appearing at the court via video link from HMP Leeds, he admitted a charge of escaping lawful custody and possession of cannabis.

Mitigating, James Littlehales said that Gardiner had made a spur of the moment decision to flee prison, and had intended to hand himself in.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC told him: "Escapes from prison vary greatly in their gravity. You were serving a substantial sentence for a firearms offence which can cause fear in the public.

"That's why firearms officers attended to arrest you. You say you intended to hand yourself in , but after you had seen your father you went partying for two days, and were found in a hotel room with a lady."

He gave him 12 months' jail, to begin after he has completed his previous sentence.

Gardiner was part of a gang of four that fired shots at a house in Sharlston Common in 2017 during a bitter dispute between rival drug gangs.

Leeds Crown Court had heard that Gardiner was a dealer in the Knottingley area and swore revenge after two of his street dealers were robbed of drugs and cash.

Five bullets were fired into the living room of the house and one went into a bedroom, and were thought to have been fired by Liam Gardiner.

Nobody was injured.

Gardiner, who was living at The Ridgeway, Knottingley, at the time, was jailed for 15-and-a-half years.