A CARE worker caught smuggling drugs into a Tardebigge prison has been given a shorter jail sentence so she can take up a university place.

A judge at Worcester Crown Court said there was no reason to jeopardise the chances of Louise Heath, aged 24, starting a degree course in

social work.

Judge Nicolas Cartwright said the sentence could have been six months but he was prepared to reduce it to four so she will be out on licence before term starts at Wolverhampton University at the end of September.

Charles Hamer, prosecuting, said Heath, of Winnington Road, Birmingham, had been caught by staff at HMP Hewell, Tardebigge, near Redditch, on January 23.

She had two packages containing 300 tablets of methandienone a class C drug, and had left them in a toilet to be collected later by her then boyfriend.

She initially told police he had been under pressure to get the drugs but later admitted there were only the two of them involved.

She pleaded guilty to one charge of conveying a banned substance into a prison.

Richard Hull, defending, said Heath was an intelligent woman who had a full time job as a care worker and wanted to make a difference in her local community but had made the wrong choice with her relationship.

Judge Cartwright said taking drugs into prison caused risks for inmates and staff and was a very serious offence that could only be met by an immediate deterrent jail term.

"She is to start at university and this shouldn't be jeopardised," he said.

"She will be released after half her sentence in time to start the course."