Woman smuggled socks soaked in drugs into prison
FOOTWEAR FOR BOYFRIEND WAS ‘IMPREGNATED’ WITH SPICE
A PRISON visitor was arrested after an innocuous-looking present of new socks for her inmate boyfriend was found to be “heavily impregnated” with the man-made drug Spice.
Leicester Crown Court was told that 24-year-old Tanya Dawes, who has recently changed her surname from Hodgkins, thought she would get away with the underhand footwear trick when visiting her partner in the city’s Welford Road jail on March 3 last year.
Dawes admitted conveying into prison a prohibited item, MDMB, also known as Spice, a synthetic form of cannabis.
Judge Philip Head asked if the socks would have to be boiled to make use of the class B drug.
The prosecutor, Mark Achurch, said the soaked socks were likely to have been “burned and smoked”.
He said the defendant was also found to have incriminating messages on her mobile phone, including discussions about what kind of absorbency socks to get and of her making money transfers to another person to obtain the Spice, on behalf of her boyfriend.
Dawes’s barrister, Pieter Briegel, said his client changed her surname from Hodgkins by deed poll in March this year.
He said she was now using the same surname as her boyfriend, Brad Dawes, whom she was taking the socks into prison for. Judge Head adjourned the case for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, but said: “People who bring drugs into prison usually go inside.
“I don’t want there to be any false optimism by the fact I am ordering a report.”
Mr Briegel said: “She understands all sentencing options are open to the court.”
Dawes, of Mayfield Street, Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, was released on bail.
She is due to be sentenced on October 15.
People who bring drugs into prison usually go inside
Judge Philip Head