Prison guard jailed for smuggling heroin and phones

A prison guard who took a £360 bribe to smuggle heroin, mobile phones and more into Wandsworth prison has been jailed for six years.

Kwaku Boakye, 59, was ‘caught red-handed’ with a holdall stuffed with heroin, cannabis, 18 mobile phones and 17 SIM cards when he arrived for work at on 21 April 2014.

Also in the bag was an envelope crammed with £360 that bore the fingerprints of Donna Taylor, 34, who was helping prisoner Jerry Agyemang in the belief they would be together upon his release.

Boakye and Taylor were handed sentences of six years and four years at Southwark Crown Court today (Fri).

The judge, Mr Recorder John Mann QC,said: ‘You both know that the supply of prohibited articles into a prison environment is extremely serious – it undermines the security of prisoners and staff.

‘I must also keep in mind that others minded to commit such offences must come to know that the court deals with those caught, particularly those in a position of trust, will be dealt with severely.

‘A prison officer is in a position of trust – what you did was an outrageous breach of that trust.

‘You have participated in the commission of an extremely serious offence.’

Boakye was caught trying to smuggle in the goods when he turned up for work at around 7.30pm on April 21 2014.

Caroline Carberry, prosecuting, said: ‘This is one of the most serious cases of its kind.

‘What was taking place has far reaching repercussions for the safety of people within prison.

‘This represents the most serious breach of trust imaginable as far as a prison officer is concerned.’

The goods are said to have totalled more than £8,000 in relative prison value.

Boakye was caught by officers undertaking a random search operation after a drug dog became suspicious of him.

He had a large hold-all with him and officers could smell cannabis and see a large package inside the hold-all.

It was explained to Boakye that a ‘suspicious package’ wrapped in cling film had been found in his bag and that he was going to be body searched before two small bottles of wine were found in his jacket pocket.

Boakye said to the officers ‘please help me’ before offering to take the goods back out of the prison.

Inside the bag Boakye had stashed 54.45 grams of herbal cannabis, two packets of the stronger skunk variety weighing 47.7 grams, one packet of 13 percent pure heroin that weighed 2.18 grams and 510mg of 14 percent pure heroin.

When one of them told Boakye he believed he smelt alcohol on his breath the defendant admitted he had been drinking that morning before claiming he didn’t know what was in the bag.

He first told the officer that the contents were for ‘Agyemang on C wing’ and that ‘his wife pays me’.

Boakye then admitted that this was the third time he had helped smuggle goods into the prison.

Also found during the search was a bundle of cash which had Taylor’s fingerprints on it and her home was later searched and police found cling film, mobile phones and SIM cards.

Officers were also able to track a number of communications between Taylor and Agyemang using phones recovered which appeared to allude to a meeting between the prisoner and Boakye.

Taylor and Boakye met outside a pub in Clapham where she gave him the goods and the strict instruction to pass them on to her man on the inside.

A search of Agyemang’s cell also resulted in a number of items previously snuck in by Boakye being found.

Agyemang, who was serving a life sentence for armed robbery, was later found by officers concealing a mobile phone between his buttocks.

But by the time police returned to arrest and interview him, Agyemang had already been deported to Ghana in June 2014.

Taylor had been expected to stand trial alongside Boakye but pleaded guilty to trying to sneak prohibited items into the prison on the morning of the trial.

The court heard that she and Boakye had communicated a number of times ahead of the day of his arrest but she denied being the supplier of other goods found in Agyemang’s cell.

It was said that Agyemang became controlling over Taylor and even managed to contact her mother and make threats from inside the prison, sending others round to see Taylor when he was unable to communicate with her.

Following his arrest Boakye gave a prepared statement to police before answering ‘no comment to all further questions.

He said he had been given the hold-all by a friend to give to another friend who was travelling to Africa.

Boakye maintained he did not know what was in the bag because it was sealed and he had not opened it.

He still continued to maintain his innocence even at the sentencing hearing despite being convicted.

Investigating officer DC Scott Pavitt of the SC&O36 London Prison Anti Corruption team said: ‘This case has been a long and complex investigation, requiring the close co-operation of our partners in the prison service.

‘I hope that their sentences serve as a deterrent to others who wish to engage in corruption to continue the criminality of those serving sentences inside prison.’

Boakye, of Moberly Road, Clapham, was jailed for six years for two counts of conveying a list A prohibited article into a prison and three of conveying a list B prohibited item into a prison.

Taylor, of St James Road, Mitcham, pleaded guilty to two counts of each offence and was sentenced to four years behind bars.

ends