Jail guards find mobile phone in artificial leg of crash offence inmate

Prison guards in Perth found a contraband mobile phone hidden inside an inmate’s prosthetic leg.

Jodie Cormack, who lost his left foot in a workplace accident six years ago, was serving a 30-month sentence for a road crash that left six people injured.

Officers at HMP Perth received a tip-off that the 30-year-old had a phone concealed inside his artificial limb.

Cormack, who has since completed his sentence, appeared in the dock and admitted a single charge of being in possession of a communications device while in prison.

At the city’s sheriff court, defence solicitor Robert Cruickshank said, despite being out of work, his client could pay a fine using cash from a “not-insubstantial” settlement from former bosses Baxters of Speyside.

Fiscal depute David Currie said staff had received intelligence about the hidden phone in March 2020.

“When prison officers entered his cell to search, the accused was quite clear and admitted that the phone was there,” he said.

Cormack told officers: “It is what it is.”

Mr Cruickshank urged Sheriff Francis Gill not to send his client back to jail.

The court heard he had been imprisoned twice since the end of his 30month sentence.

“This has been due to his chaotic lifestyle,” said Mr Cruickshank.

“And the main reasons for the chaos was his dependence on cocaine and a relationship he had at the time.

“I am assured he no longer uses cocaine and that the relationship is at an end.”

Mr Cruickshank said: “It is to his credit that since his release on October 29 last year, he has not come to the adverse attention of the police. Sending him back to prison would have little purpose, given the strides he has made since his release.

“He is in a position to pay a financial penalty. He received a not-insubstantial financial settlement as a result of the accident.

“He has to acknowledge that he has spent quite a lot of that but he still would be able to pay a penalty.”

Sheriff Gill deferred sentence for three months to give Cormack the chance to prove he can stay out of trouble. “The possession of mobile phones in prisons is a serious issue,” he said.

Cormack, of Milton Drive, Buckie, will return to court to learn his fate on April 13.

World-famous food firm Baxters of Speyside was fined £60,000 following Cormack’s accident at its Fochabers plant in January 2014.

Cormack, who was working as a short-term cook, had to have his left foot amputated on site after getting trapped in a machine. His right foot was later partially amputated following a number of operations.

Baxters admitted “serious” health and safety failings that led to the accident, during a hearing at Elgin Sheriff Court in 2015.

Cormack appeared at the same court five years later and admitted what was described by a sheriff as one of the “most horrendous” examples of dangerous driving.

He flouted speed limits and made death-defying overtaking manoeuvres on the A98 Fochabers to Banff road on Boxing Day 2019.

Cormack, who had no licence, ploughed into a Peugeot 308, injuring six people. One of those involved had to be airlifted to hospital for emergency treatment.

IN COURT: Sentence was deferred for three months on Jodie Cormack for him to be of good behaviour after he admitted having a phone in HMP Perth.