Black Country drone smugglers jailed for UK-wide prison operation

A gang from the Black Country have been jailed after drones were used to smuggle cannabis and mobile phones into prisons.

Craig Hickinbottom, who directed the ‘large-scale and persistent’ operation from behind bars, was jailed for seven years and two months after being described as a ‘leading’ player in the plot.

Drone pilot Mervyn Foster received a sentence of six years and eight months for his part in the conspiracy, which involved 49 drone flights and four ‘throw-overs’.

Birmingham Crown Court was told the offences were committed between July 2015 and May this year at jails in Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Birmingham, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Liverpool, and Perth in Scotland.

Judge Roderick Henderson said: “Supplying things into prison that should not be there threatens proper management and creates real risks of violence.”

Remote-controlled drones, equipped with a fishing line and hooks, were flown to cell windows. CCTV showed prisoners then visiting the cells and leaving with packages.

Hickinbottom’s 32-year-old partner, Lisa Hodgetts, from Tividale, admitted money laundering and was given a 16-month suspended prison term.

Hickinbottom, 35, who was a prisoner at HMP Featherstone in Staffordshire, and later HMP Hewell in Worcestershire, organised deliveries to both jails.

He admitted four counts of conspiring to bring contraband into prison, and conspiracy to supply psychoactive substances.

Foster, of High Street, Tipton, was described as the conspiracy’s ‘prime organiser on the outside’.

The 36-year-old, a petty criminal with 31 convictions for 76 offences, worked with John Quinn, 35, of Swancroft Road, Tipton.

Quinn was jailed for four years and eight months after admitting three counts of conspiracy and another of conspiring to supply psychoactive substances.

Hickinbottom’s brother, 50-year-old John Hickinbottom, was jailed for four years and eight months for his role.

Terry Leach, 19, of Wednesbury Oak Road, Tipton, was given a two-year suspended sentence after being described as a ‘foot soldier’.

Ashley Rollinson, 21, of Waiver Road, Brierley Hill, who was only involved for one day, was jailed for 11 months but has already served his sentence on remand.

Yvonne Hay, 41, and her boyfriend, Francis Ward, of Bloxwich Road, Walsall, were jailed for two years, four months.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of another defendant after he failed to attend court.

Sanjay Patel, 37, of Telford, but formerly of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was given a four-month sentence for possession of a mobile phone in prison.