Mum jailed for smuggling crack cocaine into prison

A mum who smuggled crack cocaine into prison has been jailed.
Teesside Crown CourtTeesside Crown Court
Teesside Crown Court

Mother of two Susan Booth, 29, was caught with drugs worth between £5,000 and £10,000 when she visited her partner in Holme House Prison, Stockton.

Prison staff suspected she had passed something to the inmate, who was serving a 30-month sentence.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court officers detained both of them and they seized the entire drugs consignment.

Her partner had 252 diazepam tablets and two subutex pills hidden in the waistband of his trousers.

Booth was searched and a number of drugs were recovered, including 609 milligrammes of crack cocaine all wrapped up. A further search recovered more drugs. Miss Haigh said that there were 249 Diazepam tablets and another Subutex pill.

Miss Haigh said that if the judge decided that Booth had played a significant part she risked a prison sentence of three to five years, but it would reduced if he ruled that she had acted under pressure.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Booth said in interview that she knew that the consignment was drugs but she did not know that it included the Class A crack cocaine.

Robert Mochrie, defending, said she knew that a prison sentence was inevitable because a message must go out to others.

He added one of her children was handicapped with a severe arthritic condition.

The judge Recorder William Lowe QC told her: “I consider that you were under pressure from someone to act in a criminal way.”

Booth, of Devon Crescent, Billingham, wept as she was jailed for eight months after admitting to conveying an illicit item into prison.