Anthony McCarten, 49, told police he had stolen two TVs from Asda’s Bootle superstore – knowing he would be remanded in custody.
But security guards later noticed “a very strong smell of cannabis” and when he was searched, packages started falling out of the back of his shorts.
Robert Jones, prosecuting, said: “Though in interview he insisted it was for his own personal use, frankly it beggars belief they were for anything other than supply.”
Liverpool Crown Court heard McCarten went to St. Anne Street Police Station on July 8 last year and said he was responsible for the thefts.
Mr. Jones said: “At the time he was not linked with the offence. Nevertheless he was arrested, interviewed and made full admissions.”
Because of McCarten’s long criminal record, he was “inevitably” remanded in custody and sent straight to South Sefton Magistrates’ Court.
After appearing before magistrates, he was brought out of his cell and searched by suspicious security officers when the bags dropped out.
Mr. Jones said: “He said to the staff he was ‘a dead man’.”
McCarten told police he was a heroin addict and claimed he had tried to sell the TVs to a woman, but she did not have any cash and paid him in the packages.
Mr. Jones said: “He denied it was all part of a plan from the outset and there was never any theft.”
Police retrieved 6.3g of heroin, 38g of cannabis resin and 23g of cannabis, plus six mini mobile phones in a package seven inches long.
The court heard the heroin wraps were in £10 deals, while the total estimated value of the drugs inside prison was up to £1,439.
McCarten, of no fixed address, who was previously jailed for six weeks for the theft, continued to deny intending to supply the drugs.
He eventually admitted three counts of attempting to convey listed articles into prison and the full facts of the prosecution case.
Mr. Justice William Davis questioned McCarten’s suggestion that the woman he met did not have any money, but did have £590 of heroin she was willing to trade.
Julian Linskill, defending, said: “Maybe she thought she could make more money from the TVs than she could from the drugs. I’m at a loss to explain that.”
“Yes. I’m not surprised,” the judge replied.
Mr. Linskill said his unemployed client had spent most of his adult life in and out of prison, but this incident was “a one-off episode”.
Jailing McCarten for four years, Justice Davis said he found his explanation for how he came by the heroin “fanciful”.
He said: “Heroin in prison is endemic and is a huge problem, both in terms of the effects on the people who take it and the effects on discipline in the prison, because it is hard currency, in every sense of the word.
“You also had six phones, which again are hard currency in prison for those who want to continue their criminal operations from their prison cells.”
But security guards later noticed “a very strong smell of cannabis” and when he was searched, packages started falling out of the back of his shorts.
Robert Jones, prosecuting, said: “Though in interview he insisted it was for his own personal use, frankly it beggars belief they were for anything other than supply.”
Liverpool Crown Court heard McCarten went to St. Anne Street Police Station on July 8 last year and said he was responsible for the thefts.
Mr. Jones said: “At the time he was not linked with the offence. Nevertheless he was arrested, interviewed and made full admissions.”
Because of McCarten’s long criminal record, he was “inevitably” remanded in custody and sent straight to South Sefton Magistrates’ Court.
After appearing before magistrates, he was brought out of his cell and searched by suspicious security officers when the bags dropped out.
Mr. Jones said: “He said to the staff he was ‘a dead man’.”
McCarten told police he was a heroin addict and claimed he had tried to sell the TVs to a woman, but she did not have any cash and paid him in the packages.
Mr. Jones said: “He denied it was all part of a plan from the outset and there was never any theft.”
Police retrieved 6.3g of heroin, 38g of cannabis resin and 23g of cannabis, plus six mini mobile phones in a package seven inches long.
The court heard the heroin wraps were in £10 deals, while the total estimated value of the drugs inside prison was up to £1,439.
McCarten, of no fixed address, who was previously jailed for six weeks for the theft, continued to deny intending to supply the drugs.
He eventually admitted three counts of attempting to convey listed articles into prison and the full facts of the prosecution case.
Mr. Justice William Davis questioned McCarten’s suggestion that the woman he met did not have any money, but did have £590 of heroin she was willing to trade.
Julian Linskill, defending, said: “Maybe she thought she could make more money from the TVs than she could from the drugs. I’m at a loss to explain that.”
“Yes. I’m not surprised,” the judge replied.
Mr. Linskill said his unemployed client had spent most of his adult life in and out of prison, but this incident was “a one-off episode”.
Jailing McCarten for four years, Justice Davis said he found his explanation for how he came by the heroin “fanciful”.
He said: “Heroin in prison is endemic and is a huge problem, both in terms of the effects on the people who take it and the effects on discipline in the prison, because it is hard currency, in every sense of the word.
“You also had six phones, which again are hard currency in prison for those who want to continue their criminal operations from their prison cells.”
Music: "Danger Storm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: Liverpool Echo , Mirror , The Sun
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