Mum caught trying to smuggle cannabis into HMP Lowdham Grange but denies it was for murderer

HMP Lowdham Grange
-Credit:MATT ALEXANDER


A mother-of-two was caught trying to smuggle drugs into a Nottinghamshire prison - but she denied the package was for a murderer she'd made arrangements to see. Nottingham Crown Court heard how the package Charmaine Smith was carrying dropped out of her dress and onto the floor as she was being screened at HMP Lowdham Grange.

The 43-year-old Londoner, who has previously served four years for drug dealing herself, told police she had been forced to carry out the crime under threat. Now she has landed herself back in jail for agreeing to do it. Sending her to prison for eight months, Judge Steven Coupland said: “You are here because you agreed to take a significant quantity of cannabis into prison.

“You did so because some very unpleasant threats were being made to you. You could and should have refused to do it.

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“You could and should have told the police but what you chose to do instead was to take the cannabis into prison. Drugs have a particularly high price inside prisons and they are used to instil power and lead to debt and violence. People who want to smuggle drugs into custody invariably pick on people like you who may not be caught.”

Kate Attenborough, prosecuting, said the offence took place at the category B men’s prison on September 21, 2023. She said Smith had booked to see a murderer called Leon Roberts who was a co-defendant of one of her cousins and she arrived and was screened before she entered the visitor's area.

But the prosecutor said Smith repeatedly denied the package was for Roberts. Ms Attenborough said: “She was going through the security machine which flashed red and a package fell from under her dress and onto the floor. She tried to pick it up and put it back under her dress.

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“She was asked by a manager at the prison if she had a package and she confirmed she had. She was described by one of the prison officers as ‘looking very panicked and upset’ and said she was ‘very disappointed in her actions’.

“She said the package was not for Leon but both she and him had received threats. She said Leon did not know about the package and said she had a child at home, was scared and had been forced to do it.”

Smith, of Waterford Way, Brent, pleaded guilty to conveying an illegal item into prison. She has 16 previous convictions for 24 offences including a four-year custodial term for possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

Isabella Glendinning, mitigating, said her client has two teenage sons and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. She said: “She got her life back on track after her 2017 conviction and is a good candidate for a suspended sentence and can do unpaid work."