Drug-dealer caught with mobile phone in prison
A PRISONER who was locked up last year for growing and selling cannabis was caught contacting his girlfriend with a mobile phone in his cell.
Dale Bird was 10 months into his six-and-a-halfyear sentence when he was caught with the phone by a custody officer during an inspection of his cell at HM Parc Prison.
Bethan Evans, prosecuting, said the defendant seemed “startled” when two officers arrived to search his cell. Cardiff Crown Court heard the incident happened on October 26 last year at the prison in Bridgend.
Ms Evans said the officers saw him slip something into his pocket and told him to hand it over, but he refused.
She added: “There was a struggle and the phone fell to the floor.”
When he was interviewed, Bird gave a prepared statement saying he had borrowed the phone to contact his partner.
Prosecutors said he had been before the courts for 15 previous offences – mostly drug-related. He was jailed for six and a half years in January 2018 for producing cannabis and supplying cocaine and cannabis.
The court heard police found 67 plants at a cannabis factory he was running.
Bird, 29, a serving prisoner at HM Parc Prison, admitted possessing a prohibited article in prison.
Sara Palmer, defending, said he had been complying with the rules in prison until that point and told the court he pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
She said he missed the Friday afternoon deadline to upload credit to the prison phone and would not have been able to contact his partner over the weekend.
Ms Palmer said the phone did not belong to him but was borrowed from another prisoner, and he did not use it to commit further crimes.
She added: “He simply wished to contact his girlfriend.”
The court heard it was a basic phone that could make calls and send text messages but not connect to the internet.
Judge Michael Fitton QC jailed him for 12 months on top of his current sentence. An order was made for the phone to be confiscated.