A Keighley man is on the run after absconding from an open prison.

Richard Geary, left, and a fellow prisoner walked out of HMP Sudbury in Derbyshire last Wednesday .

Police are appealing for anyone with information about the whereabouts of 43-year-old Geary - and his colleague Lee Steeples, 31, of Wakefield - to come forward. Geary, described as a prolific burglar and former drug addict, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on February 16, 2007, to three-and-a-half years for theft.

In 2005, Geary was sentenced to a two-year drug treatment programme by Bradford Recorder Deborah Sherwin, having been arrested for burglary while on bail. The sentence related to a burglary in Skipton in October 2004, when Geary was on bail for a previous break-in, during which he stole a car from a cottage in Draughton.

Geary is described as 6ft 1in tall, of slim build with short brown straight hair and blue eyes, and he speaks with a Yorkshire accent. He has numerous tattoos and an inch-long scar at the top of his nose. His last known address was in Keighley. Steeples was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court in November 2004 to six-and-a-half years for drug offences.

A spokesman for the prison service said HMP Sudbury was a category D jail for low-risk prisoners where the emphasis was on "resettlement", so inmates took part in projects outside the confines of the site. The prison, built as a hospital for the US Air Force for the D-Day landings and converted to its present use in 1948, accommodates around 570 people in a mixture of single and double rooms.

More than 600 inmates have walked out of HMP Sudbury in the last decade.

Derbyshire Police advise members of the public not to approach either man if they see them but to immediately contact their local police station or call the Crimestoppers line anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The prison service told the Keighley News the number of absconds from jails was at its lowest level for 10 years.

The spokesman added: "Public protection is paramount and all prisoners located in open conditions have been rigorously risk assessed.

"Open prisons are the most effective means of ensuring prisoners are tested in the community before they are released."

HMP Sudbury governor Chris Davidson said: "Through co-operation with the police and the CPS there have been an increasing number of prosecutions of absconded prisoners from Sudbury, with most getting on average six-month sentences added to the terms they are already serving."

But the prison would not comment on the circumstances of the men's escape.