Shamed Wigan prison worker who had fling with armed robber is jailed for drug smuggling at jail

Annette Causey sneaked cannabis and tobacco into Hindley Prison secreted in her bra after forming a relationship with armed robber Jamie Ellis after he’d been given a cleaning job in the kitchens, Bolton Crown Court heard.

The 35-year-old single mum, who used to be a prison officer at Hindley when it was a young offenders’ institution but had to move to the catering department when she kept failing the fitness tests when retraining, had pleaded guilty to conspiring with four members of the public to supply cannabis resin between April and July 2018 at the Bickershaw institution.

She also admitted to conspiring to supply class B drugs and tobacco between March and July 2018 and smuggling tobacco into the jail for a prisoner on July 10, 2018.

The hearing was told Causey, of Warrington Road, Abram, would receive payments for the contraband after she fell for 31-year-old Ellis who had been jailed in 2015 for his part in a series of armed robberies targeting Liverpool’s Chinese community.

They would send sexual messages to each other, Ellis using a mobile smuggling into the jail and they would meet for sexual contact twice a day in the prison.

The smuggling and drug peddling continued until the police’s anti-corruption unit was tipped off and a search was made of Ellis’s cell during which two mobiles and a book containing Causey’s phone number were found.

Causey was arrested coming into work and admitted to having drugs on her, saying that her daughter had been threatened if she didn’t carry out smuggling orders.

Hidden inside her bra were three packages containing 45.3 grams of cannabis resin, two bags of tobacco and £510 in cash.

Inside her car parked outside the prison, police found three more packages containing 48.9 grams of cannabis resin, another two packs of tobacco and £900 in cash, plus correspondence of an erotic nature.

When Causey’s home was searched, a stash of cash, love letters written for Ellis and cannabis were seized.

The court was told that the total amount of cannabis confiscated had a street value of around £14,000.

She admitted to misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to supply class B drugs.

One co-accused - 24-year-old Kayleigh Sanderson, of Baguley Avenue, Widnes - was cleared of conspiring to supply cannabis resin earlier this year.

Ellis, of Lakenheath Road, Knowsley, admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis resin and six mobiles inside prison between March and July 2018 and was given a new 16-month prison term.

And Mark Berry, 31, of Baguley Avenue, Widnes, who initially denied conspiring to supply cannabis resin and possessing a mobile inside a prison, but later changed his pleas, was sent down for 21 months.

Adam Holme, 29, who admitted possessing a mobile inside the jail between March and April 2019 was given a six month sentence, suspended for 12 months, last August.

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