A 21-year-old man has been jailed for throwing drugs over the walls of a city jail from neighbouring gardens.

Louis Denham admitted two counts of supplying psychoactive substances in so-called "throw-overs" at HMP Nottingham.

Staff at the category B jail, which holds about 1,000 inmates, found packages in the prison grounds in March last year covered with Denham's fingerprints.

In August 2016, 10 cigar-shaped packets containing drugs were found close to the perimeter fence.

Denham, of Woodfield Road, Nottingham, was spotted nearby by a police officer who chased and arrested him.

After being charged, Denham pleaded guilty to the offences at Nottingham Crown Court and was jailed for 16 months.

When Nottinghamshire Police searched his home they found 10 micro-sized mobile phones small enough to fit inside the drugs packets.

An Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons report from last year found psychoactive substances were a "significant problem" in the jail.

Denham was prosecuted under new laws introduced in the Serious Crime Act in 2015.

Detective Inspector Ed Cook, of Nottinghamshire Police, said the force and prison service would continue to target people throwing drugs into the jail.

He said psychoactive substances could be "linked to an increase in violence" in jails and placed extra demand on prison staff.

We have a duty to ensure our communities are safe, including the prison community and that means bringing people like Denham to justice

Mr Cook added: "We have a duty to ensure our communities are safe, including the prison community and that means bringing people like Denham, who was using access to local residents' gardens to supply the prison, to justice."

Tom Wheatley, HMP Nottingham governor, said: "Psychoactive substances cause misery in prison and those who supply them are breaking the law and obstructing us from delivering a safe, secure and decent environment.

"We work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that this activity is likely to result in imprisonment for the perpetrators."

In April, three men were jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for 12 months each for throwing psychoactive substances into the category B Parc Prison in Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales.

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