Hard-core robber posts his prison photos on Facebook despite mobile phone ban

Birmingham: A prisoner serving a seven-year sentence robbing a cash transit van has posted photos onto Facebook of him posing with fellow inmates.

Mobile phones and social networking sites are banned from prisons, but this didn't stop dad-of-six Adam Ali posting updates from his cell at Featherstone prison in Wolverhampton, the Birmingham Mail reported.

Some of his 384 friends complimented his lifestyle, with one saying: "Looks like a nice flat you got there.

"Is it one or two bedroom, make sure you lock the front door of a night.

"I've heard it's a bit rough in that area, full of criminals."

That is where he is serving a seven-year sentence for his part in robbing a cash transit van carrying £465,000 to Staffordshire's V Festival in August 2013.

Jail bosses are now investigating the Facebook uploads, which were removed within hours of the Birmingham Mail contacting them.

Ali, from Cotman Close, Great Barr, was jailed last June for the robbery in which a van driver was taken hostage at Hopwood Service Station on the M42 by gang members wearing hoods and ski masks.

The driver was bundled into a high-powered Audi, while Ali drove the vehicle to a field near Alvechurch, where he was due to meet his accomplices.

Ali posted the pictures on to Facebook last month and brazenly made one of them his profile picture.

A spokesman for the Prison Service said: "It is totally unacceptable for prisoners to access social networking sites or instruct others to do so on their behalf.

"If a prisoner breaks the rules they can be stripped of their privileges, have time added on to their sentence and may be reported to the police for further action.

"Facebook will close down accounts being updated by, or on behalf of, serving prisoners."

The Ministry of Justice department also confirmed it had asked Facebook to remove the pictures of the prisoner and his profile.

Ali was jailed at Worcester Crown along with Leon Bell, 37, of Greenvale Avenue, Sheldon, and John Wall, 50, of Bromford Court, Bromford Lane, Washwood Heath.

All pleaded guilty.

Bell was jailed for eight years and Wall was given seven years.

A fourth man, Leon Brown, 38, of Willersley Gardens, Hall Green, was convicted of robbery last year and jailed for 13 years.

The court heard that the gang followed the low-profile cash-change truck from a depot in Oxford.

Bell and Brown, wearing hoods and ski masks, grabbed the driver at the service station.

Wall was to meet them in Alvechurch but was picked up by police while driving there in a van.

The rest of the gang then diverted to Alvechurch railway station where the terrified cash delivery driver was forced to help empty the money from his van before being locked inside.

The three were arrested after a high-speed chase involving the Audi.

The Government announced that phone networks would be compelled to block mobile phones and SIM cards being used in prisons in an amendment to the Serious Crime Bill.

If approved, the legislation will mean that, once a phone has been identified, the prison service will be able to apply to a court for it to be disconnected without needing to seize the phone or prove it is being used by a specific prisoner.

In 2013, a total of 7,451 seizures was made of illicit mobile phones or SIM cards in prisons.