A mother-of two who claimed she was pressured into smuggling cocaine into a Suffolk prison after getting into debt with a loan shark has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Simone Woodard went to Highpoint prison with a man to visit a prisoner in July last year and while she was in the visiting area she was seen fiddling with her trousers, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

She was then seen on CCTV to pass a yellow balloon to the prisoner and when he was searched he dropped the balloon which contained 25g of cocaine worth £2,000.

Woodard, 31, of Crawley Close, Corringham, Stanford-le-Hope, admitted taking cocaine into Highpoint and was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

She was also ordered to do a Thinking Skills course and a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement and to pay £150 costs.

Tim Starkey, for Woodard, said his client had borrowed money from a loan shark to buy her daughter a mobile phone for her birthday and had been unable to repay the loan.

The loan shark had then threatened her and her family before ordering her to take the drugs into Highpoint.