Man jailed for attempts to throw drugs into Haverigg Prison

Maurice Smith was sentenced for 20 months at Barrow Crown Court on Friday after attempting to throw prohibited items into HMP Haverigg in North Lane.

Smith, 53, of Well Lane, Maryport, was caught by guards in the early hours of January 15 between two perimeter fences at Cumbria's only prison.

A rucksack recovered from the scene had six plastic boxes inside, with contents in each including 1,300 tablets of class C drugs, primarily steroids, 91g of cannabis resin and  400g of caffeine, as well as mobile phone accessories, cables and chargers.

Police had been called to the prison after reports of two men throwing items at the fences. The second man has never been caught.

Mr Jeremy Grant-Smith, prosecuting, said: "There's CCTV footage of two men practicing throwing objects so to get a measure of the distance.

"The police received a call at 12.45am. They attended. They went on foot around the footpath.

"They saw two men in the field between two perimeter fences. Police shouted 'stop' and both men ran. The two males split up. The one they managed to catch was this defendant.

"He had in his possession Ford vehicle keys and a transit van was located near the scene."

Smith pleaded guilty to the two counts of conveying an illegal article and attempting to throw illegal articles into the prison.

Barrow Crown Court was told that Smith had a long history of offending.

Mr Richard Bennett, defending, said: "The only mitigation is the guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.

"As far as he's concerned the contents of the packages contained steroids and mobile accessories and having been resident at that establishment was aware of the locality where the intended recipients would be had they been successfully distributed over the perimeter fence."

During sentencing, Her Honour Judge Beverley Lunt said: "This was a substantial amount of contraband that you were part of trying to get into Haverigg."