A 61-year-old pharmacy technician has been locked up for over six years after smuggling drugs and mobile phone SIM cards into HMP Bristol.
Tanya Petrie Caught Red-Handed
Tanya Petrie, from Worle, was sentenced to six years and three months at Bristol Crown Court on Monday, 16 February. She was found guilty of conspiring to bring list A prohibited items—hard drugs—into the prison. She’d already admitted bringing in list B items, including tobacco and less serious drugs.
The court heard Petrie worked inside HMP Bristol and used her position to smuggle contraband behind bars.
How the Smuggling Operation Unravelled
- On 17 October 2023, police spotted Petrie collecting a suspicious package from a wheelie bin in a Bristol garden.
- Casey Collins, 23, from Knowle West, lived at the address and allegedly placed the package for Petrie to pick up.
- Petrie then went to the prison, where officers detained and searched her.
- She handed over a cling film-wrapped parcel containing cocaine, other class B drugs, and tobacco.
Further phone data analysis revealed two numbers inside the prison, one linked to inmate Kyle Joyner, 32, who used it to contact Collins, suggesting a prison-wide smuggling network.
Co-Conspirators Handed Jail Terms
Petrie admitted in police interviews that she’d been collecting money from the wheelie bin and used it to buy SIM cards from a local garage—smuggling them into HMP Bristol for inmates.
Joyner and Collins were also charged in the summer 2024. Both pleaded guilty in January 2025:
- Casey Collins was jailed for two years and four months.
- Kyle Joyner got three years, to be served alongside an existing sentence of eight years and eight months.
This case shines a spotlight on the ongoing problem of contraband inside UK prisons and the lengths some staff go to facilitate it.
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