An inmate who escaped from an Oxfordshire jail by swapping identities with his cellmate was helped by a prison officer, a court was told.

Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday (April 7) how convicted drug dealer Jamad Rad paid a prison officer to help him trick guards at Bullingdon Prison, near Bicester, into believing he was due for release.

He and cellmate Omid Malek, both 22, shaved their heads and wore identical skull caps as part of a plan by Rad to secure his early release.

Rufus Stilgoe, prosecuting, said Rad created forged photo identity cards which duped guards into believing they were one another.

But Nigel Daly, defending, said while Rad admitted escaping from lawful custody, a prison officer had given him a helping hand.

He said: "One does not simply get ID cards in prison the way described. They were provided by a prison officer for a sum of money."

After the case, Home Office spokesman Matthew Freear said police helped carry out a full internal investigation at the prison and there was no substance to the allegations. He said security measures relating to the release of prisoners had been revised and were regularly monitored by managers as a result of the escape.

Rad was jailed for six years in October 2001 for possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply after the drugs were found during a raid at his home in Cardigan Street, Jericho, Oxford.

Instead, he was mistakenly released on August 8, while Malek -- who was at the end of a one-year sentence for possessing ecstasy -- remained behind bars.

Mr Stilgoe said it only came to light that Rad had escaped after Malek and his family, waiting outside the prison, asked why he had not been set free.

A manhunt for Rad was begun and a fortnight later he was caught at Dover attempting to board a ferry to Germany using a forged passport.

Malek, of Shepherd's Bush, London, was interviewed by police about his involvement in the escape and claimed he had been "under duress".

He was acquitted of aiding a prisoner to escape custody by a jury at Oxford Crown Court last week after telling how Rad pressurised him into taking part by threatening to harm his family.

Mr Daly said Rad had been driven to escape through fear of being deported to Afghanistan, where he was born, upon his early release this year.

At the time of his original sentence, Judge Anthony King filed a deportation order and the Home Office wrote to Rad in prison last May informing him he would be sent to Afghanistan.

Mr Daly said Rad was a German citizen and feared being "dumped" in war-torn Afghanistan, where he had not lived since the age of three.

He said Rad and his family lawyers in Germany, where his six sisters and two brothers worked as doctors, pharmacists and building engineers, repeatedly tried to contact the Home Office to ask if he could be deported there.

When they received no reply, he became "desperate".

Judge Anthony King described Rad's actions as "organised and pre-planned".

He sentenced him to 15 months' imprisonment, to be served on top of the remainder of his six-year sentence.