Brian Rogers' escape be on his desk by Wednesday in light of shocking new allegations over his December breakout.

The Mid-Ocean News reported on Friday that Rogers' cell was filled with tools, including a 30-inch chain saw, hatchets and hammers.

The newspaper further said that according to prison sources Rogers used cocaine in prison and had not been eligible for transfer to the Prison Farm.

Prison rules might also have been breached, the article said.

Rogers was running a carpentry business from the farm and selling his carvings through an "outside'' businessman, said the newspaper's sources.

"I was concerned enough about the article to have insisted the report be produced quickly,'' Acting Social Services Minister Sen. Michael Winfield said last night.

"As Monday is a public holiday I gave them until Wednesday to produce it.'' Prison and Police officials were conducting the probe, he said, adding their findings would probably not be made public for security reasons. Rogers was recaptured on December 20.

Sen. Winfield was able to respond to some of the newspaper's claims. But he said he was "in the dark'' about most of them because he had not seen the report and both Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness and Prisons Commissioner Mr. Edward Dyer were off the Island. The article also prompted a response from Police who denied detectives probing the escape were unhappy with the cooperation they received from prison guards.

The newspaper had quoted a source as saying Police described prison guards' attitude as "less than cooperative''. For one, they were not certain when Rogers actually escaped.

Sen. Winfield said: "It is my opinion, after talking to prison officers and the acting commissioner, that some of the allegations were not correct.'' He believed it was "not likely'' the tools the Mid-Ocean News referred to were actually found in Rogers' cell.

However, he would probably have had access to them. "Tools such as those (chain saw, drills, sanders, hatchets, hammers, screwdrivers, petrol and glue) are used by the prisoners for all kinds of work at the Prison Farm,'' Sen.

Winfield said.

"(Rogers) would have had access to them -- under supervision.'' Sen. Winfield agreed with the Mid-Ocean News' sources that it would have been a breach of prison policy for Rogers to have been involved in private trading with an outside businessperson.

However, he noted, Prison Farm inmates made a variety of cedar carvings that were available for sale from time to time.

"That kind of thing encourages productivity. And in my opinion, that's what prison is all about,'' he said.

The newspaper's sources claimed Rogers sold his wood carvings to a Somerset businessman. And it may have been a bitter argument with the businessman that prompted his escape.

That claim was, in fact, backed up by acting Police Commissioner Supt. Wayne Perinchief in the aftermath of Rogers' escape.

Supt. Perinchief revealed during a news conference that Rogers was a skilled carpenter who made cedar carvings. And he said he apparently had an argument with a "man who did business with him'' and also with a woman friend.

He may have escaped to confront the two -- whose homes were being watched, Supt. Perinchief said.

Sen. Winfield said it was his understanding Rogers, along with other prisoners, had been drug tested twice in the last three months, in October and on December 14, and tested negative both times.

But The Mid-Ocean News' sources claimed Rogers had tested positive for cocaine two days before his escape.

The article further alleged that the career criminal was moved to the Ferry Reach Prison Farm to do private work for prison officers including car repairs and woodwork.