A FIRM paid to transport prisoners has missed more than 45,000 transfer targets since 2020.
The shocking figures on how GEOAmey is failing on its £238million contract were released under freedom of information legislation.
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They show that in the last 42 months the company did not make 45,529 trips to take lags to courts, hospitals or back to jail.
The shambles comes as the auditor general warns it could take years to clear a backlog of 28,029 jury trials and 24,946 JP or sheriff-only trials.
We previously told how prison officers are being offered overtime to ferry inmates when GEOAmey cancels.
In June, warders at Polmont nick, Stirlingshire, had to make a 400-mile round trip to Elgin with a con.
And in Edinburgh last month Sheriff Derek O’Carroll hit out over the non-arrival of a remand inmate for sentencing.
He said: “This is now a daily occurrence.
“It’s due to GEOAmey not having enough staff.”
Tory shadow justice secretary Russell Findlay said: “The public will be appalled victims of crime are left waiting because prisoner transfers are missed by a highly paid contractor.”
GEOAmey’s eight-year contract began in January 2019.
Last night a spokesman said: “Since 2019, we have successfully transported around nine out of ten prisoners to their location on time, with fewer than one per cent of movements cancelled or unfulfilled as a result of GEOAmey failure.”
