AN MP says it is “unacceptable” an inmate was able to abscond from an open prison and spend the night in a luxury hotel with his con woman wife.

Douglas Ward, 26, from Darlington, who is serving more than five years for firearms offences, evaded checks at North Sea Camp Prison in order to seal a romantic tryst with his convicted fraudster wife, Eileen.

The pair stayed at the 18th century boutique Cley Hall Hotel, in Spalding, Lincolnshire, 20 miles from where Ward was being housed.

However, hotel management became suspicious after checking Ward’s Facebook page and finding his status listed as ‘serving prisoner’.

Staff were also unable to charge Ward for the booking using the credit card details he had supplied and eventually alerted the prison.

Ward and his 27-year-old wife Eileen, who was given a suspended jail sentence last September after her involvement in a scam in which a dementia sufferer from Chester-le-Street was fleeced out of £2,500, previously lived together in Throstlenest Avenue, Darlington.

When reporters called at the address they were told the family living there had moved on.

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman, who is Labour’s shadow justice minister, said: “Our prisons are in crisis and the Ministry of Justice needs to get a grip.

“These kind of incidents only undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.

“It is clearly unacceptable for this man to have absconded in this fashion.”

Ward, who admitted charges of escaping from prison and one of damaging a cell door, was given a concurrent 15 month jail sentence by a judge at Lincoln Crown Court and has now been moved to a closed prison.

He is already serving a 64 month sentence handed to him in October 2011 after being found in possession of firearms during a pre-arranged fight between travelling families in Manchester.

The court was told that Ward, who has a five year old son, was a “model prisoner” who had become frustrated after his planned release date was put back.

His wife Eileen has previous convictions for dishonestly targeting the elderly and took part in what a judge said was a “clearly despicable” attempt to deceive an elderly woman out of £2,520 by overcharging for gardening work.

She was not charged over the hotel incident.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “We have always been clear that offenders who abscond from open prisons will face consequences - this case is evidence of that commitment.

"Open prisons provide the most effective means for risk-assessed prisoners to be tested in the community before release. This is to reduce their chances of reoffending upon release.

"Absconds are down 75 per cent over the last ten years but each and every incident is taken seriously.”