A man caught swapping shoes with an inmate during a visit to Buckley Hall prison has been jailed after officers found packages of drugs hidden under the soles. Shakil Patel, 39, was seen looking ‘nervous’ by guards at the Rochdale facility.
He was monitored while talking to an unnamed prisoner, Minshull Street Crown Court heard. When they swapped shoes, they were caught ‘red handed’. Packaged or heroin and cocaine were found under the soles of the footwear.
Patel, from Blackburn, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply class A drugs. He jailed for over five-and-a-half years as he is a ‘third-strike’ offender.
Aubrey Sampson, prosecuting, said that on January 24 this year, Patel went to HMP Buckley Hall to visit a prisoner. “They [guards] monitored the meeting taking place and then witnessed the defendant and prisoner exchange shoes,” she said.
“The defendant was immediately detained and the shoes were removed. Hidden under the soles were package containing 15 wraps of white power and seven wraps of brown powder.”
Patel has previous lengthy convictions for drug dealing. The minimum tariff for a ‘third-strike’ offender is seven years. In 2014, he was jailed for three years for two offences of possession with intent to supply class A drugs. In 2017, he was jailed for five years and seven months for conspiracy to supply drugs.
David Bruce, mitigating, said his client had filed a ‘basis of plea’ which had been accepted by the prosecution. The basis of plea document was not read in open court.
“He had no influence on the chain, he had no understanding of the scale and there was no financial gain,” Mr Bruce added. “You were caught red handed taking into prison wraps of cocaine and heroin,” judge Tina Landale said.
“You have been an inmate inside prison and you are well aware of the harm that controlled drugs cause within prison, both for prisoners themselves and for the staff and prison officers.”
Patel, of Dunoon Drive, shook his head as he was jailed for 67 months.
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