FORMER boxer Peter Eubanks was due to be released from prison today after spending just one night in prison for failing to pay a £50 fine.

He was jailed for seven days in lieu of paying the fine imposed four years ago for failing to answer bail.

He should have served three days of the sentence at Lewes Prison before being released.

But because Lewes Prison does not release prisoners over the weekend, Eubanks, brother of former world champ Chris Eubank, is expected to be kept in custody for only one day.

Lewes MP Norman Baker branded the sentence "farcical".

Expensive

Mr Baker said: "It must be one of the most expensive sentences handed out given the cost of taking him into prison for one day. I think it is rather farcical.

At a hearing last month Eubanks, 36, of Palmeira Square, Hove, told the court he could not remember being fined four years ago and said he would rather go to jail than pay up.

He was told he had 28 days to pay the £50 in full or he would be sent to jail. But when he appeared in court yesterday afternoon he had not paid a penny.

Magistrates rejected his offer to pay £1 a week.

He was told to turn out his pockets to see if he was carrying enough cash to cover the fine but he had less than £10.

Eubanks then turned to the magistrates and said: "I came here today prepared to go to prison so why don't you just send me?"

The unemployed painter and decorator sat whistling in the witness box until jailers arrived.

The revelation that he would only spend one day in Lewes prison was branded "absurd" last night.

Nonsense

Former head of Sussex CID Jim Marshall said: "I believe in justice and if the magistrates thought fit to impose a sentence then it should be completed. It seems absurd that somebody can be sentenced to seven days and only serve one. It is a nonsense."

Brighton MP David Lepper said: "I can understand the pressures on the prison service, particularly at the weekend, but if a sentence is laid down that should be what someone serves."

Opposition Tory leader on Brighton and Hove Council Geoffrey Theobald, who is also member of Sussex Police Authority, said: "One night in prison might not seem very much but I suppose even that is a salutatory experience."

Paul Mitchell, deputy clerk to the justices at Brighton Magistrates' Court, explained people sentenced to jail only serve half of a short prison term. The prison then decides when to release prisoners.

He said: "Mr Eubanks will probably be out today. If he was sentenced on a Monday he would serve longer."

The Home Office confirmed Lewes Prison does not release prisoners over the weekend.

Any prisoners who have a release date which falls on Saturday or Sunday are released the previous Friday.

In March Eubanks claimed at the same court he would go to jail rather than pay a fine for breaching a no-entry road sign in North Street. He was fined £210 and ordered to pay £35 costs after admitting the offence. He appealed against the sentence and the case is to be heard at Lewes Crown Court.

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