Crossword Genius

Like old Peruvian serving prison sentence (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

incan

'like old peruvian' is the definition.
(the Inca were a historical people of Peru)

'prison sentence' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'prison' could be 'can' (the can is American slang for prison) and 'can' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'in' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'serving' is the link.

(Other definitions for incan that I've seen before include "doing time?" , "From old Peru" , "Pachacuti for example" , "See old South American" , "Of an ancient Andean culture" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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