JAILED: Student tried to take drugs into Featherstone Prison

Taiyyab Ahmed was paid £200 to take cannabis and tobacco into HMP Featherstone, near Wolverhampton, during a visit to his uncle, an inmate serving seven years for drugs importation offences, Stafford Crown Court heard.

Ahmed, aged 20, signed the disclosure forms at the entrance, declaring he was not carrying anything he should not bring into a prison, said Mr Patrick Sullivan, prosecuting.

But he was targeted by a drugs dog and led away for questioning. After initial denials, he owned up to having 1.6 grams of cannabis and 84.4 grams of tobacco hidden in two packages which he had secreted in his mouth and his groin.

The quantity of tobacco, which is now banned inside prison, would have cost £36 from a shop but its jail value was a ‘staggering’ £8,400, said Mr Sullivan.

The value of the cannabis would have done £120 in prison, four times its street worth. The drugs and tobacco were mixed together inside the packages.

Ahmed, a student at Aston University, who had no previous convictions, told police his involvement was ‘purely financial’.

But Mr Simon Warlock, defending him, claimed Ahmed was vulnerable to bullying and has been made to carry out the offences against his will.

“He is a naive young man who was, it seems likely, manipulated by others and did what he was told to do,” he added.

Ahmed, of Kenelm Road, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply on October 4 last year. He also admitted two further charges of conveying cannabis and tobacco into a prison.

Sentencing him to a total of four months behind bars, Stafford recorder Judge Michael Chambers, QC, said smuggling drugs into jail undermined the work of the prison authorities and led to debts, bullying and the committal of other offences.

Refusing to suspend the sentence, he told Ahmed: “You’re clearly an intelligent young man, but I’m afraid the appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate imprisonment.”