A WOMAN has been jailed after she was caught smuggling drugs worth thousands of pounds into HMP Berwyn.

Donna Cluskey, 48, said she had been paid £100 to bring the items into the prison and was only caught after prison guards noticed her “walking in an awkward manner”.

She was intercepted and following a strip search, a sausage shaped package fell from her vaginal area. The package was found to contain 23 Buprenorphine tablets, which had a prison value of £2300 and 95.8 grammes of cannabis, which Judge Rhys Rowlands said could fetch anything between £7000 and £12,000 behind bars.

Jailing her for a period of 13 months, Judge Rowlands told Cluskey that her actions had “undermined the prison regime” and that only a custodial sentence was suitable as she had also taken the drugs into prison for a personal reward.

Prosecuting barrister Simon Mintz had earlier told Mold Crown Court how the defendant had been visited the prison two weeks before carrying out the offence on January 28 last year, so that she could “see the layout”. He said how the harm caused by drugs in prison had an impact on inmates, including opening them up to the prospect of debts, which would inevitably lead to bullying and fear of the most vulnerable. Mr Mintz also mentioned how access to such dangerous drugs in prison had the obvious potential to scupper any plans inmates might have at using their time inside to get themselves clean and drug-free.

Cluskey admitted to the offence when interviewed by police, but it took until December of last year for a postal requisition to be sent out to her and she had failed to show up in court. It was only when she tried to check into the YMCA on Leeds Street in Liverpool earlier this year was she told a warrant had been issued for her arrest. When police attended, Cluskey told officers she had been concealing a kinder egg inside herself for several weeks, and when examined later was found to have small quantities of crack cocaine and cannabis in her possession.

Mr Mintz also told the court that Cluskey had a very similar previous conviction, when she received a 28 month prison sentence (following an appeal) for trying to smuggle heroin and cocaine into HMP Kennet and back in 2008, received a 42 month sentence for conspiring to deal class A drugs.

Paul Wood, defending, accepted that his client’s previous convictions were an aggravating feature and although she did admit to the latest offences under a police interview, was not helped by her own history. She has a long history of drug abuse, he said, adding how this case was a “time old example” of a user of an addictive substance becoming the supplier due to drug debts.

Judge Rowlands told Mr Wood how Cluskey had been paid money for taking drugs into prison and was someone who clearly had a history of “doing so before”. He said he doesn’t know why it took so long for her to be charged with the offence, despite making an early admission during a police interview.

He went on to tell Cluskey how the value of drugs in prison cannot be ignored and taking them in created “untold problems” for both prisoner’s and staff.

He said: “You were helping yourself by being paid.

“You have a depressing record of offending over many years.”

Cluskey was given the full one-third credit by the Judge for her guilty pleas as he sentenced her to serve 12 months for taking the drugs into HMP Berwyn and one month for the matter of possession, which will be served consecutively.

He added: “You undermined the prison regime, which is designed to help both inmates and staff.

“This offence is far too serious to be dealt with by anything other than a custodial sentence.”