Jailed dealer gets extra time after mobile fell from shorts

A CONVICTED serial drug dealer has been jailed for an extra six months for possession of a mobile phone in HMP Humber near Pocklington.
Father-of-one Clive Morris, 26, was jailed for five years and seven months for the repeated supply of drugs and was found with a prohibited mobile phone at the Everthorpe jail in his shorts during a search.
Mobile phones are banned in prison because of their link to the trafficking of drugs and further crimes.
Because of police cut backs on investigations his mobile phone was not analysed to see who he had been calling.
Morris of Colwich Road, Sneinton, Nottingham, appeared in custody via video link to Hull Crown Court (Friday, March 11) after pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a prohibited article in Her Majesty’s Prisons.
Principal Crown advocate Phillip Evans said two prison officers began a search of Clive’s single-occupancy cell at 2.30pm on May 13, 2015 as he was being moved to another part of the prison.
“As he was being escorted, with staff either side of him, it was noticed a mobile telephone dropped from his shorts to the floor between his legs,” said Mr Evans.
“He tried to stamp on the phone and let out an exclamation. The defendant was pushed out of the way and the telephone was seized. Not only the telephone, but a charging cable was found in the cells.” The maximum sentence is two years in prison.
Defence  barrister James Bourne-Arton said: “The reason he had a phone is because he lives in the Nottingham area and for reasons of over-crowding he was serving his sentence in East Yorkshire. He received no visits as his family had no means to travel from Nottingham to the Humber. In these circumstances he made use of the mobile phone. He was due to be released on May 6.”
“From a very early age he fell in with the wrong crowd. He is 26 and has a daughter who is two years old. He has barely spent time with her.”
Sentencing Judge Simon Jack told Morris: “Drugs can be a scourge in prison. It is worrying that someone in your position has a mobile phone. They can be used for a variety of nefarious activities. You are serving a mandatory minimum sentence for dealing in class A drugs. It is precisely that kind of thing the legislation on prohibited articles in prison is designed to safeguard against. The mobile phone was never interrogated so it is not possible to find if it was being used for nefarious activities. You are lucky this was not done. There is a clear public interest in a consecutive sentence being passed in order to deter other inmates from committing this offence.”
Morris was ordered to serve a six-month sentence on top of his current sentence.