A CONVICTED drug dealer who smuggled an iPhone into Prescoed open prison whilst serving the last few months of his eight-and-a-half year sentence there has avoided a return to jail.

Rodney Brissett, 31, was caged in 2014 after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, prosecutor Gareth James told Newport Crown Court.

He was convicted for being part of a syndicate involved in the shipment of cocaine.

In January 2017, he was a category D prisoner at the Monmouthshire jail when he was caught by officers with the mobile phone in his cell. The court was told Brissett was allowed to have a phone outside the prison while he was attending a catering and hospitality course.

But Mr James said he was not permitted to have it when he was back inside the prison gates and was consequently transferred back to a closed jail as a result.

He admitted conveying a prohibited article into prison.

David Pinnell, mitigating, said the defendant was released from jail in June 2017.

He added the Crown Prosecution Service only decided to press charges when he had asked if he could have his phone back, which he had bought himself, when an adjudication process had failed to be convened while he was still serving his sentence.

Mr Pinnell added that the defendant had also been employed at The Clink, a restaurant at Cardiff Prison run by prison inmates. The judge, Recorder Paul Lewis QC said: “A mobile phone is a valuable commodity in prison as it allows unmonitored access to others outside of prison."

But he said, because of "exceptional circumstances, he was not going to impose an immediate custodial sentence.

The judge said the reasons behind his decision were the “considerable lapse of time” it had taken to bring the case to court, the defendant’s behaviour since his release and the progress made in securing a full-time job.

Brissett, of London Road, Gloucester, was jailed for four months, suspended for two years.

He must also pay prosecution costs of £235 and a surcharge.