A PRISON van was sent from Southampton to Oxfordshire to drive a suspected criminal a few yards from a police station to a magistrates’ court – because of his “human rights”.

The decision to drive 90 miles to move defendant Oliver Thomas an estimated 60 yards was taken by GEOAmey, which started a new Ministry of Justice transport contract at the end of August.

The case came to the attention of Oxford Crown Court Judge Tom Corrie, who questioned how much public money had been wasted by not walking the 27-year-old the few steps down the street.

Thomas, of Middleton Road, Banbury, had been held in custody overnight at Banbury Police Station to appear at the town’s magistrates’ court last Monday morning after being arrested the day before for two alleged public order offences.

Defence barrister Claire Fraser said she was informed that GEOAmey – which gets £90m a year to take defendants between custody and courts – would have to send a van from Southampton to Banbury to transport Thomas from the police station to the magistrates’ court, a distance of about 60 yards.

Judge Corrie said: “I’m not quite sure why he couldn’t be walked across the street rather than sending a van from Southampton.”

He said there would be “no difficulty at all” in police officers taking the defendant to the neighbouring court and added: “I wonder how much public money has been wasted.”

Referring to GEOAmy, Judge Corrie continued: “The new contractor is still settling in to the revised and cheaper contract, which, it was told to us, would be more efficient than the previous one.”

He added: “Time will tell. The evidence is building up.”

GEOAmey spokesman John Bates defended the decision to send the van. He said: “Police wouldn’t expect us to turn up at Banbury and handcuff a prisoner and take him down the street and to the court.

“Generally speaking we don’t see that in this country.

“It strays into the area of human rights. They have a right to have their identity protected.”

Driving suspects between the two buildings would appear to be standard procedure and he added: “We normally cover Banbury from our Buckinghamshire vehicle base.

“However, in this particular instance, the request to move this prisoner came late, by which time all our available Buckinghamshire-based vehicles and crews had been allocated to other routes and schedules.

“As a contingency measure, in order to deliver the standard of service we are committed to provide, a vehicle and officers were deployed from our Eastleigh base.

“This was not a ‘one-off’ run just to deliver this prisoner.

“Our staff collected Mr Thomas from Banbury in the morning and assisted with duties at the court until mid- afternoon then delivered prisoners to HMP Bullingdon, Bicester, and on to other prisons.”

The decision has nothing to do with Thames Valley Police officers based in the station.

A police spokesman said: “It may be possible for officers to assist with prisoner transport, as we work in partnership with the contractor.

“However, every situation will need to be decided on its merits.

“I am sure the public would prefer to see officers on the streets and not providing transport for defendants.”

Robert Oxley, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said the case was “appalling” adding: “There must have been more cost effective solutions that ensured public safety.”