Bank robber gets more prison time for Featherstone heroin smuggling plot

John Hickinbottom recruited his recently bereaved niece and an ex-convict to buy the drugs and bring them into Featherstone jail, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The 49-year-old, with 55 previous convictions involving 115 offences and serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection, hatched the plan in 42 phone calls to Craig Hughes, aged 40, and 21-year-old Takima Higginbottom. The conversations were monitored by prison authorities who allow inmates to ring pre-agreed numbers.

"He made arrangements for the purchase of an Oscar, slang for an ounce of heroin," explained Mr Gurdeep Garcha, prosecuting."

He set out how and when to purchase the drugs and how this would be financed. There were specific instructions as to where the money was, how much to pay and to whom." He also offered them a 'couple of hundred quid' for their help, the court was told.

Hughes bought the heroin and handed it to Miss Hickinbottom before both got 'cold feet' and pulled out of the deal at the last minute despite a desperate pleas from the inmate.

Both had arranged to visit him on April 10, 2014 but neither arrived for the appointment.

Mr Garcha continued: "The authorities believed this was going to be the day the drugs ordered by John Hickinbottom were to be smuggled into the prison."

Police were called when neither attended and the homes of Miss Hickinbottom and Hughes were raided the next day.

When searched she had hidden up her sleeve a package of heroin worth £1,760 in street deals but £8,800 at inflated prison inmate prices, the court was told

Mr Janaka Siriwardena, defending, said her mother had died just months before her uncle suggested the drug smuggling plan and she was now five months pregnant.

Miss Sunita Mahtab-Shaikh, for Hughes maintained that he had been 'coerced' into taking part by friends of John Hickinbottom whose barrister Mr Paul Mytton conceded: "As far as he is concerned he is to blame."

All three defendants admitted conspiracy to smuggle drugs into Featherstone Prison.

John Hickinbottom, previously of Blakeley Hall Road, Oldbury was jailed for five years while Hughes of Cooperage Court, Parks Lane, Tipton was locked up for two years eight months and Takima Hickinbottom from Reservoir Road, Rowley Regis was given 18 months detention.

Recorder Geoffrey Kelly told John Hickinbottom: "You believe the rules of society do not apply to you and are there to be broken. The way you exploited your niece after the death of her mother was abhorrent."

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