DOZENS of prisoners escaped the imposing walls of Chelmsford Prison on Saturday and fled on bikes, toy cars and a Rolls Royce.
But the escape was all in the name of charity as the 'inmates' took part in the 36th annual Essex Jailbreak, in which teams set out to get as far away as possible without spending a penny, to raise cash for Essex Boys and Girls Club.
One such four-person team was 'Dream Queens', led by 22-year-old Hannah Nicholls, who lives in Chelmsford's Crompton Street off Writtle Road, who managed to get to a hotel in Tenerife via a free trip in a Rolls Royce wedding car and an EasyJet flight from Southend Airport.
"We were hoping to have a horse and carriage but no-one offered. We messaged the wedding car company and we have a couple of friends who work for EasyJet and they got us 70 per cent off and a pageant magazine and a few friends paid the rest.
"It started at 9am – we got to the airport within 30 minutes and the flight was at 1.30pm. We knew the other teams were driving but last year they hitchhiked to Berlin and if they hitchhiked, they could do double the distance. But unfortunately when we landed our friends had no internet so we could not check where they were and we were panicking."
While other contestants were more content with shaking their buckets on a more local pub crawl, in the end, the Dream Queens' 1,800-odd mile trip was more than double what the second-placed team, Southend Prisoners, managed – driving from Chelmsford to Milan Cathedral.
Hannah said: "We did win by quite a lot but I do not feel like we were winners – we raised £200 but the other team raised £2,000. When the time was up we spent more getting back to England than we raised.
"We said next year we will be taking part and we will be sticking to the UK, going for the best costume or most miles done on foot."
On hand to see the eight teams off was prison veteran Victoria Alcock, of Bad Girls TV fame, who said: "It is a great cause and the club and its volunteers do an amazing job. I might give it a go next year, it is just sort of thing me and my husband like.
"It is good to be Essex supporting these people who are raising money for such a good cause. It is a pretty amazing idea, especially with the prison getting involved."
Juliet Townsend organised the day, which has raised £250,000 since 1980 to help fund the organisation's 150 youth clubs across the county. She said: "The weather is obviously a bit wet this morning but we have got eight teams taking part so it should be a good day. This year we have three teams who are actually aiming to get overseas.
"We're so grateful to everyone who got involved and made the day special. The event really sums up what we as a charity are about – the spirit of adventure for the good of the community.
"We're so proud of their achievements – to date the teams have raised over £4,500 for the benefit of seven different charities. A special thanks to the new governor of HM Prison Chelmsford for permission to hold the event again and to Vicky Alcock for setting them off."
