A woman has been sentenced after smuggling a phone into a prison while she was working there as an officer.
Larissa Westcott, of Vicus Way, Maidenhead, was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court yesterday (26/1).
She was given an eight month custodial sentence, suspended for two years, and must complete 30 rehabilitation sessions, with 17 hours’ unpaid work within the next 12 months.
Westcott was also ordered to pay £500 costs, plus a victim surcharge.
The 28-year-old had pleaded guilty to one count of bringing/throwing/conveying a prohibited article into a prison under the Prison Act 1952 at a hearing on 16 December 2022 at Staines Magistrates’ Court.
Between January and February 2022, when Westcott was employed as a prison officer at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, she smuggled a mobile phone into the site at the request of a prisoner.
It was then left under a pillow for the prisoner to find and use. The device was found during a search of the prisoner’s cell and Westcott was named as the person who brought it in.
During the subsequent investigation by counter corruption officers from the South East Regional Prison Intelligence Team (SERPIT), Westcott admitted to bringing the phone into the prison.
She was charged on 13 July last year.
Investigating officer, Detective Constable Nick Gossage, of SERPIT, said: “Westcott was in a position of trust in which her personal integrity was key to the role.
“However, she took it upon herself to liaise with a prisoner and to smuggle a phone into the building. Mobile phones within prisons cause considerable harm both within the prison estate and the wider community. They enable drugs and other contraband to be brought in and traded causing violence, debt and strain on health services.
“This should serve as a warning to anyone else working in a prison. Our counter corruption officers will investigate and should you be found to be responsible, you will face court proceedings and possibly face prison time yourself.”
Miss Westcott, of Windsor in Berkshire had always dreamed of a life working at 36,000 feet for the airline.
But once she told interviewers in 2014 that she had a discreet tattoo of the word ‘Aquarius’, which is her star sign, her hopes were dashed.
The 20-year-old said at the time: ‘I had put on a smart dress, pinned my hair up in a bun, put on heels and applied some red lipstick. I looked the part.
Lanarkshire smuggle
Very similar to a recent case where a prison officer smuggled cocaine and other drugs into a maximum security jail after befriending a killer.
Heather McKenzie, 31, bonded with con Zak Malavin while working as an operations officer at HMP Shotts, which houses some of Scotland’s most notorious criminals.
Intelligence inside led to McKenzie being suspected of bringing drugs and phones into the prison.
Malavin, caged for the slaying of a man in a park, had his cell searched in May 2020 which led to an iPhone, cocaine and a sleeping pill being found.
A search the following month found two knotted bags with 5.7g of cocaine while data on the iPhone revealed texts and calls to McKenzie.
Police raided her home in Forth, Lanarkshire, in October 2020 and found £2500 in cash, mobile phones, syringes, steroids, cocaine and benzocaine.
Phone analysis revealed a string of messages between Malavin and McKenzie, who met with criminals to be given drugs, phones and money.
McKenzie also persuaded another prisoner to stay involved in the scheme after he considered pulling out.
At the High Court in Lanark the mother of two admitted supplying Malavin and others with drugs between March and October 2020. She also admitted giving Malavin an illicit phone and a SIM card.
Prosecutor Graeme Jessop said a joint operation by the Scottish Prison Service and Police Scotland into corruption by jail staff began in March 2020.
He added: “The accused was identified as one of the prison officers suspected to be introducing controlled drugs, mobile devices and other articles into the prison.
Further, consistent intelligence was received purporting the accused had formed a close relationship with a prisoner who is serving a life sentence.”
He told the court: “The prisoner appeared to use other prisoners to hold and store illicit items and the accused would drop smuggled items into a prisoner safe within or near his cell.
“Another prisoner appears to have wanted nothing further to do with this and the accused is sent by the prisoner who was communicating with her to speak with him and reassure him.
“The accused describes convincing him to keep going and assuring him his cell won’t be searched and he won’t be caught.”
McKenzie will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on February 23. A proceeds of crime case has been launched against her.
Malavin knifed Andrew Curran, 41, to death in front of his sons during a fight in Glasgow’s Maryhill Park in April 2010.
Andrew Curran, 41, died from a wound to the neck after a bloody battle in Maryhill Park in April 2010.
Zak and his elder brother Angus Malavin jnr were later jailed for a total of 35 years for the murder.
Andrew Curran’s killing was part of a feud between the Malavin and Curran families in Maryhill.
In January 2014, Zak’s dad Angus snr was attacked and brutally beaten up by a rival gang of thugs in the Maryhill Tavern.
It was not the first time Angus snr had been the target of a revenge attack.
In March 2011, he was knocked down by a 4×4 in a hit-and-run in Glasgow.
Both sides agreed to meet in Maryhill Park on April 16, 2010, but it turned into a bloody frenzy during which Andrew snr was hacked to death
Last night, a Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “It is illegal for anyone to be in
possession of a mobile phone in prison.
“If it comes to our attention that someone has been using a mobile phone it will, obviously, be thoroughly investigated.”
