Visitor admits taking drug into prison

Michael Bona, 32, had travelled to the site near Market Drayton on December 12 to visit the inmate when he was put under observation by the staff.

The pair were seen to exchange the shoes they were wearing during the visit and the ruse was uncovered when the inmate was searched shortly afterwards.

Miss Abi Hall, prosecuting, told Telford Magistrates Court: “The defendant went to HMP Stoke Heath for a pre-booked visit. While there the visited was monitored by the staff and he was seen to swap footwear with the prisoner.”

She said when the inmate's shoes were checked later the bottoms contained packages were stuffed with eight tablets, a substance weighing about 200grams, a mobile phone and two sim cards.

“He accepts that the footwear was exchanged. It was found to contain the articles relating to the charges. The guideline starting point for prison mobile phone offences is nine months custody therefore your sentencing powers are insufficient," Miss Hall told the court.

Bona, of Prestatyn, Wales, admitted an offence of knowing a person to be a prisoner gave him a mobile phone and an offence of giving a prisoner a prohibited article, namely methyl.

Chairman of the bench Mrs Janet Whitby told him the case was being transferred to Shrewsbury Crown court where it will next be heard next month.

Bona was granted unconditional bail.

The issue of illegal drugs and handsets being smuggled into prison is a growing problem for the Prison Service.

Earlier this year prisoner Thomas Sidwell, 31, who also was caught with a mobile phone and two SIM cards at the Shropshire jail and was kept locked up for a further four months after admitting possession of the prohibited items on June 28 last year while he was serving a custodial sentence.

The prison officers noticed him putting a small package into his mouth and when he spat it out they saw that it contained two SIM cards. While the phone wrapped in cling film was recovered following a body search.

The magistrates handed Sidwell, of Solihull, a four-month prison sentence, saying they had reduced the term because of his guilty plea.

While another inmate Mohsin Ali, 21, of Birmingham, was jailed for nine months after admitting a similar offence last year when officers at Stoke Heath used detection equipment which produced a signal from his cell where he had hidden the phone which was later recovered from him.