The email must have been plausible, given that officials let him out of jail.
A fraudster, incarcerated at Prison in southwest London, drew up fake bail instructions and emailed them to prison officials.
The BBC reports that Neil Moore, 28, from Ilford, London, had a history of creating elaborate scams, and has previously used four different aliases to commit fraud.
While in custody, Moore used a smuggled cell phone to create a fake email account and impersonate a senior court official to send bail instructions to prison staff.
Moore was released on March 10. Moore's ruse was not revealed until lawyers went to interview him and found that he had left.
Moore himself returned three days after his escape.
Southwark Crown Court heard that Moore tricked prison officials by creating a fake web domain that was only slightly altered from the official domain of the court service.
In addition to this, he also registered the website in the name of Detective Inspector Kris Soole, with the address and contact details of the Royal Courts of Justice.
Using his fake email, he sent an email to the prison inbox containing instructions for his release.
It seems rather clever, but it's certainly not uncommon for scammers or spammers to use similar emails or websites to trap people. And Moore is certainly not new to the scam game.
In addition to the prison release scam, he had used four aliases to impersonate staff and extort a total of £1,819,000 (about $2,694,000) from Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank and Santander.
One of his tricks was to answer calls using a man's voice, pretending to transfer the call to a colleague, and then repeat the conversation in a woman's voice.
The BBC reports that Moore was so convincing that police initially charged his partner, Kristen Moore, with fraud.
All charges against her have been dropped.
Moore pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud and one count of escaping lawful custody and will be sentenced on April 20.
