Prisoner jailed for smuggling drugs and mobile phones into Stoke Heath Prison

Christopher Gittings, 37, of Himley Road, Dudley, was acting as a courier on January 25, 2016, when he was given a package by a visitor, Penny West, at Stoke Heath Prison.

The package contained two mobile phones, 10 sim cards, 11.98 grammes of heroin and 17 tablets of the class C drug Buprenorphine.

Patrick Sullivan, prosecuting, said Gittings had appeared in Telford Magistrates Court on May 30 and was committed to Shrewsbury Crown Court for sentencing.

He admitted conspiring to take a two mobile phones into prison, and possession of class A and C drugs with intent to supply.

After West had gone to visit Gittings, officers saw a package being passed, and Gittings tried to deposit it down his trousers.

The heroin had a street value of £1,000, however Mr Sullivan said the value was higher in prison. Charles Crinion, defending, said his client was a courier for people higher up the chain in prison, and said Gittings had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

He said he had bowed to pressure of people in prison, and he was not the distributor of the drugs himself. He did not know West and the meeting had been set up by others.

Mr Crinion added West had already been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for her part in the offences. He added: “He feels like his life is slipping away from him, he has spent most of his adult life in prison and does not want that anymore.”

Judge Jim Tindal said smuggling drugs into prison disrupts people’s rehabilitation and are also used by people higher up the chain to control and run a “mini gangland empire.”

Gittings is currently serving a prison sentence, and Judge Tindal sentenced him to three years in prison for the possession with intent to supply heroin. He was also sentenced to a year12 months in jail to run consecutively for the class C drug offence and for the mobile phone offence.