A pregnant mother-of-three has been jailed for three years after she and a friend smuggled drugs into a prison in a condom.

Samantha Read and Patrick Dickson had been spotted acting suspiciously on a visit to HMP Swaleside Prison on the Isle of Sheppey.

Dickson, 42, was caught on CCTV cameras reaching to the front of his jeans as they walked down the hallway on September 1 2014.

After they went to the visiting area the drugs were transferred to prisoner Stephen Snell. At one point, Read, of Freeman Road, Gravesend, embraced Snell.

Prosecutor Don Ramble said the drugs were in a tied condom. Both Read, 41, and Dickson’s DNA was found on the wrappings inside the condom.

Read and Dickson, of no fixed address, denied supplying the drugs but were convicted. Read admitted taking a sim card to the inmate, while Dickson was cleared of that charge.

Dickson, who has 52 previous convictions for 123 offences, was jailed for a total of five years and 10 months after also admitting burgling commercial buildings in the London area, and asked for 18 similar offences to be considered.

Charlotte Hole, for Read, said there was “ongoing denial”. She had performed “a limited function under direction for the inmate to whom she was close”.

“She thought she was doing him a favour,” said Miss Hole. “She believed she was helping him because he was having difficulties with other prisoners.

“She had no idea of the seriousness of her actions.”

Miss Hole asked Judge Philip St John-Stevens to take an exceptional course and suspend the sentence.

“She has discovered she is pregnant and she is concerned you may feel she has done it deliberately in a cynical ploy to avoid custody,” she said.

“She makes it clear this has come as a shock to her. She lost a baby earlier this year at a similar stage in her pregnancy. It is not put forward as emotional blackmail.”

Read’s partner had been seriously injured in an accident. He suffered a fractured pelvis and it would be up to seven months before he could walk.