Escaped inmate may have left Paremoremo area

Kevin Polwart cut through a perimeter fence at Auckland Prison yesterday. Photo / Supplied

Police believe a prisoner who broke out of the high security Auckland Prison at Paremoremo may have now made it out of the area.

There have not been any confirmed sightings of convicted armed robber Kevin Polwart since he cut his way through a double perimeter fence and escaped around midday yesterday.

A search by police, dog teams and the police helicopter of an area surrounding the prison had turned up nothing, said Inspector Vitale Lafaele, of North Shore police.

The investigation was now be widened with the inquiry team looking at identifying where the escapee may have headed, he said.

"He comes from the Wellington area but has been in prison a long time so may have difficulty re-establishing his old contacts," Mr Lafaele said.

Police said Polwart, described as a 49-year-old Maori, 165cm tall, and of medium build, should not be approached.

He was eight years into a sentence for the armed robbery of a security van and related offences.

Local residents were urged to check their homes and vehicles and anyone finding their homes insecure should contact police before going inside.

Details of the escape would not be fully known until a review into the escape had been completed, but it appeared Polwart managed to break through the perimeter fence in the workshop, Corrections national operations manager Robin Benefield said.

Mr Benefield could not say how long it had taken before it was noticed that Polwart had escaped, nor why it took up to two hours to tell residents of the escape.

In 2001 Polwart escaped from Upper Hutt's Rimutaka Prison where he was serving 10 years for aggravated robbery when he and his brother stole $600,000 in a security van robbery at Paraparaumu in 1999.

While on the run he committed another robbery on an Armourguard van in Auckland before he was recaptured in Porirua, north of Wellington.

- NZPA