Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jan 2006
Source: Manchester Evening News (UK)
Copyright: 2006 Manchester Evening News
Contact:  http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1313
Author: Will Batchelor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

OFFICER SMUGGLED DRUGS INTO JAIL

A PRISON officer has admitted trying to smuggle drugs and mobile
phones into jail to pay off a gambling debt owed to an inmate.

David Bentley, 38, tried to take three large blocks of cannabis resin,
pills and four mobile phones to a prisoner at Risley, near Warrington,
on Christmas Eve.

Fellow officers found the drugs and phones in two sealed bags of
crisps during a routine search when he arrived for work.

Susan Tickle, prosecuting, told Warrington magistrates' court: "Mr
Bentley initially told police he had taken the packages in at the
request of a prisoner on his wing to whom he owed UKP 300 in gambling
debts.

"He said he thought they contained mobile phones and slimming pills.
He said that the packages were already sealed when he collected them."

Bentley, who lives in Runcorn and has been a prison officer for three
years, told police he was smuggling the contraband in exchange for the
cancellation of the debt.

He said it was also in exchange for information about a recent
incident at the prison and for the name of another prison officer
dealing drugs on a different wing.

A senior officer at the prison found the two crisp bags while Bentley
was being searched and opened them after noticing how heavy they were.

One bag contained two large blocks of cannabis resin and a mobile
phone.

The other contained another block of cannabis, some coloured pills and
another three mobiles.

David Kilty, defending, said Bentley had assured him the incident was
a "silly, one-off, snap decision".

Bentley pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply
and conveying an article, namely four mobile phones, to a prisoner.

He was given conditional bail and will be sentenced at Warrington
Crown Court on February 3.
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