WOMAN SMUGGLED DRUGS INSIDE BRA
Officials alerted by prison sniffer dog
DRUG user Nicola Hand tried to smuggle cannabis and cocaine into one of Staffordshire’s biggest prisons – to help pay off a debt.
Now Hand is behind bars herself having been caught with the substances at HMP Dovegate, where staff discovered them inside balloons stuffed in her bra.
Stoke-on-trent Crown Court heard the 40-year-old was stopped at the Uttoxeter jail when a sniffer dog indicated to guardsat 3.15pm on November 6 last year.
Rebecca Wade, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was asked if she had anything on her and the role of the dog was explained. She started to cry.”
The court was told two wraps of drugs were found in balloons inside her bra. They contained cannabis with a value in prison of £160, and £120 worth of crack cocaine. There was also crushed tablets of a class C drug that brought the overall value to £300.
Hand pleaded guilty to conveying drugs into a prison.
Stephen Hennessy, mitigating, said she turned to illicit substances following issues in her life, and had run up a debt.
The crown court was told Hand did not personally know the prisoner she was due to meet at Dovegate, and had been taken there.
Mr Hennessy said: “Her use of class A drugs commenced in mid2017 and that led to a downward spiral and mounting drug debts.
“She was being allowed to pay as and when she could. This was about clearing part of a drug debt or being allowed more time.
“When she was stopped by prison staff she was co-operative and was not at all difficult with them.
“This has been a tragic downward spiral of events. She’s had a difficult time of it and resorting to the use of illicit substances is not the way to go and hopefully she will get the treatment she needs.”
Recorder Martin Wasik gave Hand, of Howard Street, Salford, a 16-month jail term.
He said: “There are very big problems associated with drugs in prisons.”