A woman was caught trying to smuggle drugs into prison after a man threatened to harm her brother if she failed to do so.
Gillian Heeps, 29, was arrested at Wealstun prison, Wetherby and found to have 56 tablets of heroin-substitue Subutex hidden in her underwear.
Heeps. of Wyther Park Hill, Bramley, was jailed for six months yesterday (Feb 6) after pleading guilty to taking a class C drug into prison.
Leeds Crown Court heard Heeps agreed to take the drug to the prison after an unknown man called at her home in Bramley and threatened her. The man said she knew Heeps’s brother was serving a sentence in Doncaster Prison and he would arrange for him to be badly beaten up if she did not comply.
The man also told Heeps she would be harmed and threats were made against her home.
Heeps was given orders to visit an inmate she didn’t know but was arrested before she could get in to see him.
The drugs were wrapped in cling film inside her underwear.
The court heard Heeps has 16 previous convictions and had breached community orders.
David Ake, for Heeps, said: “It was suggested to her that if she didn’t go visit this man her brother would be beaten up, so would she and her home would be damaged. The is an element of coercion.”
Mr Ake said Heeps was a carer for her mother, had co-operated with prison authorities and urged judge Rodney Jameson QC to impose a community sentence.
Judge Jameson told Heeps he had no reason to believe that Heeps was not telling the truth but he had to impose an immediate prison sentence.
He said: “It is I am afraid unquestionably the case that, despite whatever mitigation lies behind your offence, that an immediate custodial sentence is inevitable. An aggravating feature is that you have not followed previous community orders.”