A DRUGS mule has been barred from going near prisons – to stop others forcing him to smuggle things inside.

Mark Flynn was told the ban would not stretch to him being locked up if he is “foolish enough” to reoffend.

Flynn passed a cling film-wrapped package to an inmate at Holme House Prison in Stockton after it had been dropped on the floor by another visitor he was with.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the other man was the “leader” in the plot, and 31-year-old vulnerable Flynn was “used as conduit on an ad-hoc basis”.

The second visitor has never been charged with any offence, because there is not enough evidence to support it, prosecutor Emma Atkinson told Judge Peter Armstrong.

Judge Armstrong imposed a 12-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years, with an exclusion requirement banning Flynn from “voluntarily” going to any prison.

He was also ordered to carry out 25 days of rehabilitation activity, and was given a three-month electronic tag curfew between 9pm and 6am.

After being caught passing the drugs – cannabis, a tranquilliser and a heroin substitute – he was asked if he made money from the venture, and replied: “Quite the opposite.”

He told police: “I had no choice. I have been a fool. I have got a young daughter who needs me, and I’ve f***ed up.”

The court heard how Flynn has 92 offences on his record, and was locked up for four years for burglary and assault in 2004, and again in 2008 for violence.

Nicci Horton, mitigating, told the court that he suffers with physical and mental health problems, and is battling long-standing drug issues.

“This is somebody who, if given a lengthy sentence, will lose his home,” Miss Horton added.

“He is a carer for his mother, and vice-versa – they look after each other. His mother and his daughter are his two key protective factors.

“He made a promise to himself that he would not go back to prison after his daughter was born, and he has gone some way to doing that.”

Flynn, of Kennedy Gardens, Billingham, admitted three charges of taking a prohibited article into prison on November 24 at an earlier hearing.

Judge Armstrong told him: “You have the mitigation that you were not the leader in this. I am quite satisfied that the other person who has not been identified or brought to book has taken these drugs into prison, and you were then used as a conduit on an ad-hoc basis, and you foolishly went along with this even though that was not your intention when you went to the prison.

“I think it would be of assistance to the public and also to you if there was an exclusion requirement attached to this order excluding you from attending Holme House Prison or any other prison.

“If anyone asks you to, you will be able to say you are barred from going to a prison – that’s on a voluntary basis. This will not stop you from being sentenced to custody by a court if you are foolish enough to reoffend.

“If anyone asks you to take drugs into prison, you can say ‘I can’t do it, because if I do I can be locked up for five years’ because that’s the penalty for breaching an exclusion requirement.”