A WOMAN who agreed to send illicit items to an inmate at a top security prison using false identity has had a taste of custody herself.

Amy Sanfelix posted a package with a quantity of cannabis and four mobile phones concealed among clothing to the prisoner at HMP Frankland, near Durham, in June 2020.

But the parcel was intercepted and checked on arrival at the prison where the cannabis, phones, chargers and SIM cards were discovered hidden in the soles of training shoes.

The 33-year-old defendant, of Westgill Square, Annan, in southern Scotland, admitted conveying prohibited items into a prison at a hearing at Durham Crown Court earlier this week.

Read more: Durham: Woman who smuggled illegal items into HMP Frankland ends up in jail

She returned to the court on Thursday, when Judge Ray Singh remanded her in custody to Low Newton Women’s Prison overnight.

Appearing via video link from the prison to court today (Friday March 11) the judge asked how she had found her first experience of life in custody, even for one night only.

She replied: “It’s been the worst experience of my life.”

He said she may have had a brief glimpse of the unsettling nature of contraband on attempts to maintain good order within a prison environment.

He told Judge Singh told her: “You pleaded guilty to serious offences.

“The explanation you have given, and I have no evidence to suggest its inaccurate, is that you, perhaps, became somewhat besotted with and individual.

“Because of that affection you were persuaded to send items into the prison.

“It was a carefully pre-planned operation.

“You were sent these items and given the cannabis and instructions how they were to be packaged.

“You were sent £1,000 and with that you purchased items of clothing which was the decoy for the drugs and phones to be sent in.

“You removed the soles of trainers you bought and secreted cannabis and mobile phones into them and packaged all of them together.

“Then, you went to a post office and sent them to a serving prisoner.

“You knew fully well what you were doing was illegal and a criminal offence and that’s seen by the use of false names and ID in order to send the items into a prison.

“The prison authorities checked the package through their X-ray scanning equipment.

“It revealed the phones, chargers, SIM cards and cannabis, found under the sole of the trainers, and it soon became apparent these items were sent by yourself.

“You were arrested, and, to your credit, you made full and frank confessions to these offences.”

The judge said he must pass a custodial sentence of ten months, as a deterrent to others, but, in the circumstances, given her lack of previous convictions, he could suspend it for two years.

But she must perform 120 hours’ unpaid work, or ‘community pay-back’, as it is termed in Scotland, during those two years.

He warned Sanfelix if she fails to attend those work sessions she will be back before him and the ten-month sentence would be activated.

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