A WORCESTER prison officer who smuggled drugs and mobile phones ordered by inmates into a maximum security jail has been jailed for seven years.

Lucy Reynolds, aged 29, was paid £600 by prisoners’ contacts on the outside for the four-month scam at Long Lartin prison near Evesham.

She hid drugs in her bra and got through a security system that included a magnetic walk-through arch and an electronic body wand.

Reynolds began her smuggling after a brief relatonship with an inmate who was then moved off Delta wing where she worked.

But other prisoners saw she was “amenable to this sort of trafficking” and began ordering drugs, phones and sim cards, prosecutor Paul Whitfield told Worcester Crown Court.

Eventually a fellow prison officer reported her suspicious behaviour to the governor and Reynolds’ locker was searched. Inside were found 25.6 grammes of heroin wrapped in cling film, three phones, a phone lead, four sim cards and phone top-up receipts with prisoners’ names on.

At her then home in Worcester, police discovered cannabis resin, five top-up receipts and more documents bearing inmates’ names.

Reynolds, now of St Philips Drive, Evesham, confessed that she spent her ill-gotten gains on food, CDs, rent and council tax. She pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and possession of heroin and cannabis with intent to supply.

Judge Alistair McCreath told her: “This was a gross and very serious breach of your public duty.

"You took advantage of a weakness in the security system because you were trusted.

"You know how damaging it is for drugs to be in prison. They are currency, creating power structures and undermining discipline.

"Isolation is part of the punishment for prisoners, but mobile phones give them criminal links with the outside world.

“This happened many times with a degree of planning and persistence and was committed for reward. The court has to make it plain to others that if they are caught supplying to people in prison, appropriate punishment will follow.”

Mr Whitfield explained how divorcee Reynolds, who worked at the jail for three years, would stash contraband in her locker and walk through the security checks.

She would retrieve the goods when the security team went away, go back through the security arch – and if challenged tell staff her keys or chain had set off the alarm. Drugs and phones would then be hidden in a pre-arranged place to be picked up by prisoners.

Reynolds admitted she was first paid £200 to take in four phones and a sim card. She later made contact with people in Wolverhampon – including the sister of one inmate – who paid her £50 to £90 a time to smuggle cannabis in chunks “as big as a knuckle” in her bra, said Mr Whitfield.

He said: “The smuggling took quite a degree of organisation. The defendant arranged to meet girlfriends and relatives after prisoners got in touch with them.

"Prisoners even gave her a sim card so that they could contact her outside work.”

Defence barrister Martin Steen described Reynolds as “naive, childlike and vulnerable” and said she had been originally recruited as a support officer before being promoted with “little training” for her new role.

“She was totally unskilled to work with the manipulative types she came into contact with,” he said.

“Threats were made to scald her with hot water, oil and fat. She never had the skills to resist the pressures she came under.

"She can anticipate a very difficult time in prison. She has let down her family very badly indeed and is thoroughly ashamed.”