A MUM who attempted to smuggle more than £10,000 of drugs into a prison has been jailed.

Stacey Burns took a package filled with heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine into HMP Risley in order to pay off her own drug debts but was rumbled by a sniffer dog.

Liverpool Crown Court heard on Friday, January 14, that the 38-year-old attempted to visit an inmate who she claimed was her cousin in November 2019.

But she was stopped by security staff after entering the category C Warrington Road prison when a drugs dog indicated that she was carrying illicit substances.

Burns, from Manchester, then produced a small, ‘sausage-shaped’ package from her trousers.

The mother-of-three refused to say who had given the parcel to her as she was ‘not a grass’, but added that she had been ‘bullied into doing it’.

This package was subsequently found to contain 14.7g of ecstasy, 6.42g heroin, 5.89g cocaine and 1.9g of ketamine – drugs with a street value of around £1,200, but which would be worth up to £11,600 in jail.

Burns, who was described in court as a ‘diligent hard worker’, began using cocaine and developed a ‘significant habit’ and racked up £3,000 in debts as a result.

She was jailed for three years for robbery in 2018, a crime committed in order to pay off monies to dealers.

This offence saw her follow the victim for two miles over two bus journeys having spotted her withdrawing £1,000 from a bank before snatching her bag on her own doorstep.

Upon her release from custody in 2019, criminals continued to pursue for outstanding amounts owed and ordered her to smuggle tobacco into Risley prison on their behalf.

Burns, who has been clean of drugs since her release nearly three years ago, claims that she was unaware that the parcel contained drugs.

She said in letter to the court: “I bitterly regret my actions – I wish I had spoken out, but I did not do so out of fear.”

The defendant admitted four counts of conveying a prohibited article into a prison during an earlier hearing and was locked up for 20 months.

Sentencing, judge David Aubrey said: “It’s the all too familiar of using drugs, getting into debts, threats and then taking contraband into prison which, unfortunately, we see on so many occasions.”