A prison worker who took drugs and a mobile phone into a Suffolk jail has been jailed for 10 months.

Ian Jones was employed by Carillion as an agency escort worker at Highpoint prison at the time of the offences, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Jones, 33, of Oxfordshire, admitted conveying cannabis, a mobile telephone and a SIM into HMP Highpoint on or before May 12 last year.

Jailing him, Judge David Goodin said although Jones wasn’t employed directly by the prison service he was working for an agency and had used this advantage to commit his crime.

Melanie Benn, for Jones, said he had been asked to take the items into the prison and had initially refused. He changed his mind after he returned from work a few days later to find his house had been turned upside down.

“He didn’t have much faith in the ability of the police to protect him,” said Miss Benn.

She accepted her client had spent the money given to him for conveying the items.