A dad who flung drugs and phones over the wall of Strangeways prison using a slingshot has been jailed. Joshua Loose, 30, launched a package containing cannabis and mobiles into the grounds of jail – the second time he’d done so in a matter of months.
Loose, a drug addict, said he said he was trying to pay off substance debts. Pleas for him to be handed a suspended sentence so he could look after his young son were rejected by a judge, who said the sentence must act as a deterrent to others.
A CCTV operator at the high-security prison, officially known as HMP Manchester, spotted a man in a blue hoodie with the hood up, talking on his mobile phone close to the wall of the jail on Sherborne Street, Manchester Crown Court heard.
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“After looking at the camera and seemingly realising he was being filmed, the man ran off,” Samuel Ponnia, prosecuting, said. “He headed towards a side-street where he got into a car whose reg could not be traced.”
A dog patrol was dispatched to check the area on the other side of the wall where the man had been and found a yellow package on the grass verge. When they rolled the CCTV back further, they saw ‘the defendant had sent it over using a slingshot’, Mr Ponnia said.
The package contained 4.62 grams of cannabis, said to be worth £250 in prison; 6.84g of tobacco; and four mobile phones with chargers said to be worth more than £2,000 inside.
Loose was linked to the crime via fingerprints. The court was told in January 2021 he sent another package into a prison, containing cannabis, cocaine and mobile phones for which he was handed a 24-week sentence. .
Loose, of Woodstock Court, Tatton Road, Wilmlsow, pleaded guilty at the magistrates court to conveying List A and List B articles into prison. He was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday (October 30).
He was trying to pay back drug debts, Thomas Sherington, defending said. “It doesn’t excuse his behaviour, but it perhaps explains it,” he said, adding that immediately custody would have’ significant determinantal effect’ on his six-year-old son as he pleaded for any sentence to be suspended.
Judge Recorder Andrew Long said the 18-month sentence must be served immediately: “Conveying contraband into prison is a very serious offence, as it strikes at the heart of the safety of the prison system,” he told Loose.
“I accept you are a drug addict yourself, and that you were required to do this by someone whom you owed money for drugs. I accept there was pressure.
“However, you committed this offence of your own free will and you have previous conviction for similar offending in 2021. The sentence must act as a deterrent to others.”
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