A PRISON officer who smuggled drugs into a jail where his father was the governor in return for a £1,000 payment has been jailed for two years.

Martin Nelson was caught with almost a kilo of cannabis resin as he reported for work at Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey.

The 25-year-old's father, Barry, watched from the public gallery at Maidstone Crown Court as a judge told him he had brought disgrace on his family.

Judge John MacDonald, QC, heard how Nelson, a prison officer for 17 months, had become friendly with a inmate on his wing at the prison in Eastchurch.

Robert O'Sullivan, defending, said the officer was worn down by requests by the prisoner to get him a mobile telephone.

He eventually agreed and went to the Bluewater shopping complex at greenhithe to collect it from a contact.

Nelson, of Minster Drive, Minster, near Sheerness, looked at the parcel when he got it home and knew that as well as the phone, it also contained cannabis.

The package containing 991g of the drug was discovered during a routine search when Nelson reported for work on January 11. It was in a box which also contained the phone.

Judge MacDonald noted that when Nelson, who admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply, agreed to take in the cannabis in return for £1,000, he had credit card bills totalling £4,000.