Family of man who stole a bike when he was 17 and remains in prison 17 years later due to an abolished law say they have lost contact with him and do not know which prison he is in - with his father dying of cancer without saying goodbye

The family of a man who stole a bike when he was a teenager and remains in prison nearly 20 years later due to an old law have said they don't know where he is.

Wayne Bell was locked up for robbery when he was 17 years old and remains behind bars aged 34, due to a sentence of imprisonment for public protection - which was abolished by the courts.

His mother and sister told Manchester Evening News they've lost contact with him and don't even know which prison he is in now.

Their father's last wish as he fought a losing battle with cancer was to speak to Bell one last time - but this went unfulfilled as he died in April 2020.

His sister Alana Bell, 33, said the family haven't heard from him in over two years and they 'don't even know if he's alive'.

Around 17 years ago, Bell punched a man and stole his bike in Manchester. He was sentenced in 2007 and was among one of the first convicts to be handed a new type of sentence.

Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences - introduced in 2005 - was later abolished for being 'unjust'.

Those in receipt of them were handed minimum terms but after their few years in prison were up, they had to convince the Parole Board they were safe enough to be released back into the community.

However, they weren't given access to rehabilitation courses to do so.

When he was a teenager, Bell played the trumpet and wanted to become a mechanic. But he started getting into trouble at school and ended up being expelled. 

At 17, Bell was convicted at Manchester Crown Court and told he would serve four years before the Parole Board would consider releasing him but successive hearings deemed he couldn't be managed safely.

So as time went on he lost hope of ever being released and started getting in fights behind bars. With each brawl, his chances of persuading the board diminished even further.

Speaking to MEN before his death, Bell's father Carl said: 'I honestly thought he would be coming out. I thought he would be in there a couple of years.

'Wayne has watched murderers and rapists come and go in and out of prison. He just hit someone and took their bike. The sentence really doesn't fit the crime.'

Figures released by the Ministry of Justice in March revealed that almost 3,000 people are still behind bars on IPP.

Many inmates are already over their maximum term, some by over a decade, say campaigners The Institute of Now.

IPP is said to have cost the taxpayer £500 million already and could rise of £1billion by 2028.

At least 88 people given IPPs have already committed suicide in prison, with the number feared to be much higher, due to the difficulty of recording how many have killed themselves while on licence in the community.

IPP was introduced in England and Wales in 2003, as part of the Criminal Justice Act, originally intended to protect the public from dangerous offenders whose crimes did not merit a life sentence. 

When it was abolished in 2012 the change was not retrospective meaning thousands are still subject to the sentence.

The Ministry of Justice told MEN: 'The prison system is in crisis and we recognise the significant impact this is having on our whole justice system.

'It is right that IPP sentences were abolished. The Lord Chancellor is committed to working with organisations and campaign groups to ensure the appropriate course of action is taken to support those still serving IPP sentences.'

It comes after Labour announced new measures to crackdown on the prison overcrowding crisis in the King's Speech today.

Foreign prisoners who make up just 12 per cent of the UK's prison population could be deported in a bid to tackle the issue.

The plan to fast-track removals of foreign criminals is expected to free up around 5,000 places.

Other measures could include early removals of criminals before they fully serve their sentences.

Foreign prisoners could be exported to their home countries through transfer deals, and lower level offenders could be expelled from Britain, according to The Telegraph.

Last week The Prison Governors' Association, which represents 95 per cent of prison governors in England and Wales, warned that jails were due to run out of space within days.

At the end of March this year there were 10,422 foreign nationals in British jails, up from 10,148 the year before. This is about 12 per cent of all prisoners - each costing the taxpayer £47,000.