Woman sent legal letters laced with drugs to Nottinghamshire prison

Williams was given a 30-month prison sentence

A woman who sent fake legal documents laced with drugs into prison has been jailed.

Vivienne Williams sent a number of disguised packages into HMP Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire containing the Class B drug Spice.

Nottinghamshire Police said other packages seized were due to be sent to two other prisons.

The 29-year-old was given a 30-month sentence at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday.

The plot was discovered in 2020

Nottinghamshire Police said Williams, of Tudor Court North, Wembley, London, was found to be contacting an inmate at HMP Lowdham Grange in July 2020.

The purpose of the contact was to facilitate three-way phone conversations with associates who were imprisoned elsewhere.

In October 2020, a number of packages marked and franked as legal documents but containing paper laced with the drugs were seized as they arrived at Lowdham Grange.

Others were later recovered ready to be sent to other prisons - including HMPs Wandsworth and Cardiff - from Williams' London address.

The total value of the drugs seized was estimated at £17,000 but would have been worth "significantly more had it entered the prison estate", the force said.

'Key player'

Financial checks found deposits into Williams' bank account matched the names of those she had been liaising with over the phone as part of the drugs operation.

Williams previously pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to convey banned articles into prison, possession of articles for use in fraud, and a communications offence relating to the prison phone calls.

Following her sentencing, Det Insp Richard Cornell from Nottinghamshire Police said: "Williams was a key player in this plot to supply mind-altering drugs to prisoners.

"She exploited her legitimate phone access to an inmate by patching in others to the calls, enabling them to make their criminal plans, and then followed through with those plans by assisting in the movement of the drugs."