Alice will serve three years in prison (Picture: SWNS)
A probation officer who tried to smuggle drugs into a prison and asked her colleagues about rules around relationships between staff and prisoners has been jailed.
Alice Graham, now 33, was 28 and had only seven months of experience when she was caught by staff smuggling prohibited items into HMP Wealstun.
Last week, Leeds Crown Court heard Graham, of Cardigan Road in Leeds, was given a caseload that included an inmate known for being a member of a crime gang who she ‘became close to’.
Prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said: ‘My submissions show this was a relationship very much on equal terms with no hint of grooming, pressure or intimidation.
‘Come further light may be shed by comments she had made to a colleague who recalled the defendant describing staff having relationships with serving prisoners and asking about the rules and she wouldn’t be against having one and expressing sadness that one of them was shortly leaving, having been given a category D licence to move to a bail hostel.’
Mr Sharp explained that after the prisoner asked her to take items into prison for him, she did – despite already swirling rumours about their relationship.
She tried to smuggle phones and drugs into prison (Picture: SWNS)
The court heard that in a phone call, Graham was recorded as saying: ‘Everyone thinks I’m bent’.
In later WhatsApp messages to a colleague just four days before she was caught smuggling items in, she said: ‘£800 a phone I have been informed’ and ‘Let’s speak to [inmate] on Friday, he will know all of the tricks.’
The prisoner was getting released to a bail hostel in Scunthorpe, where Graham had searched for nearby hotels, it was revealed.
However, Graham maintained the searches were on behalf of the prisoner’s girlfriend – and also bought a new mobile phone and gave the prisoner her number.
Mr Sharp said: ‘An associate [of the inmate] prepared an empty Lucozade bottle with a list of items.’
The court heard the items included sim cards, mobile phones and chargers, syringes or needles for steroids, tobacco and cigarette papers, spice, cannabis, cocaine, and MDMA tablets – all estimated to be worth more than £6,000.
Graham then drove to an address to collect the items and phoned the prisoner and told him ‘she got what he wanted’ and ‘told him to be in his pad.’
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Mr Sharp explained: ‘At around 9am the defendant went into the prison with the bottle and its contents in her jacket pocket. The head of security had decided to have a search of admin staff that day.
‘Staff were taken to a corridor and tablets were set out with a dog handler and drug dog present. She went in and asked what was going on and was told simply a staff search and nothing to be overly concerned about.’
Graham was asked to take her jacket off but did not do so – then earphones that were prohibited were found in her bag, resulting in her saying: ‘I need to speak to someone.’
After being taken into an office, the bottle was seized and Graham made admissions in her police interview saying she had been ‘under pressure’.
Mitigating, Matthew Harding said Graham was of previous good character and had pleaded guilty to conveying prohibited items into prison at the plea, trial, and preparation hearing.
Mr Harding said: ‘She started her role of probation officer during lockdown so for six months was at home without a caseload and wasn’t getting valuable experience or going face-to-face with people in a custodial setting. The reality was that when she started she had very little – if any – practical experience with people who pose difficulties for those even with experience.
‘You know from the pre-sentence report she accepts and indicates she is very, very sorry for what she did.’
The court was told police knew of the prisoner and he was described as being a member of an organised crime gang and as a ‘sophisticated criminal’.
Graham will spend three years in prison.
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