A WOMAN tried to smuggle 11 rare drug tablets inside a packet of crisps into HMP Hewell, a court was told.

28-year-old Charlotte Wall was sitting opposite her husband at visiting time at the Tardebigge prison, when security staff spotted the ruse.

The tablets were bruprenorphine, a category three rated drug, said Paul Whitfield, prosecuting at Worcester Crown Court.

Fragments of another 11 tablets were found when the crisp packet was searched.

Wall, of Chapel Street in Walsall, pleaded guilty to attempting to pass the tablets to her husband.

She was given a suspended 12-month jail sentence, ordered to undertake a 20-day drug rehabilitation course and fined £325.

Brijinder Chaudhry, mitigating, said the irony was that the drug was part of the husband's prescription and could have been taken legally.

Judge Robert Juckes QC said it was a pity that Wall, who had been a regular shoplifter, had been pressured into prison to her husband when it could have been obtained legally.