OAP who smuggled drugs is given community service

Feb 18 2010 by court reporter, West Lothian Courier

A PENSIONER who smuggled drugs into Addiewell Prison escaped with community service when she appeared in court.

Mary Chalmers (64), admitted taking cannabis into the prison on September 22 last year.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard last week that Chalmers, who stays at 24 Manitoba Avenue, Livingston, was seen by staff monitoring prison visits to pass something to an inmate, which he swallowed.

Chalmers was detained until the police arrived and the prisoner was told to spit out what was in his mouth, which turned out to be a brown substance.

The substance was tested at the prison and turned out to be 30g of cannabis, worth around £64.

Chalmers’ solicitor told the sheriff court that his client said she had never been in trouble before and suffered from a variety of ailments, including asthma, arthritis, angina and skin cancer.

He said that while her grandson had been in prison, a fellow inmate and had got in touch with her and put pressure on her to bring drugs in.

The defence agent told the court: “Mrs Chalmers has been a law abiding citizen for the first 64 years of her life and intends to make this her first and last offence.

“The circumstances here are that while her grandson was serving his sentence he provided his grandmother’s phone number to a fellow prisoner as a contact for him on his release.

“That prisoner then attempted to call Mrs Chalmers on a number of occasions.

“She asked him to stop calling her but he then contacted her again and asked her to collect to bring drugs into Addiewell Prison.

“She refused to do so at that time but it was when this prisoner threatened to have her daughter’s home broken into that she acted upon his instructions.

“She was very much concerned for her grandson’s wellbeing and for her daughter’s safety.

“This was engineered by the prisoner and she perhaps has been taken advantage of in these circumstances.”

However, Sheriff Graeme Fleming said he was unconvinced that Chalmers had been a naive pawn in the incident.

The sheriff added that she should have gone to the police.

Ordering her to carry out 170 hours of community service, he said: “This court will not tolerate the introduction of drugs into prison and it is only your health issues and the fact this is your first offence that have stopped you going to prison.”