A WOMAN who planned to smuggle dozens of Ecstasy tablets into a prison panicked and left them behind when she saw police parked outside, it was alleged yesterday.

But the plot to supply the tablets to a prisoner in Holme House Prison, Stockton, was still uncovered, Robin Denny, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court.

Angela Wilson,29, from Middlesbrough, was caught with 47 Ecstasy tablets in her handbag, the court heard.

She left the bag in a taxi in the visitors' car park, where police found it. She said the drugs were for her own use.

Wilson went to the prison on January 25 last year to see her boyfriend, Wayne Fitzpatrick, using a visiting order in the name Kate Flanders, said Mr Denny.

He said she had been frightened off taking the drugs into the prison.

"What may well have put her off is that when she arrived there was a marked police vehicle already there on the car park, and she thought better of it rather than going into the prison with drugs."

The handbag was seized from the H-registration Cavalier taxi.

It held a tin with 47 Ecstasy tablets, each worth £10. When she was arrested, Wilson gave her correct details, saying that she had no personal identification so she had borrowed some from a friend.

Wilson, of Miniott Walk, Middlesbrough, said the tablets were for her own use and pleaded guilty to possessing the Class A drug. But she denied possession with intent to supply.

The trial continues.