A prisoner caught with an illegal SIM card just wanted to call his mum, a court has heard.
Neil Corrigal was caught with a Vodaphone SIM card inside his Scottish Prison Service-issue mobile phone.
His solicitor told Inverness Sheriff Court he had simply wanted to make more calls to his mother following the death of his grandmother.
Corrigal, 30, appeared at the hearing via videolink and pled guilty to a single charge of possessing a personal communication device at HMP Inverness in January of this year.
SIM slipped under cell door
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court the offence had come to light after prison staff at HMP Inverness, commonly known as Porterfield, had spotted a man slipping something under Corrigal’s cell door.
She said: “Staff noticed that a male had approached the cell of the accused and knelt down and something was pushed under the door.”
Ms Poke explained the prisoner had been issued with a mobile phone due to Covid rules, but said that when prison staff entered Corrigal’s cell, the handset they found was not as it should be.
“When picking up the mobile phone they noticed that it didn’t have Scottish Prison Service on the screen, it said Vodaphone,” she said.
Solicitor Roger Webb, for Corrigal, told the court that his client had been on remand on another matter since May of last year.
Prisoner wanted to call mum
He said: “Shortly before Christmas his grandmother died and the purpose of obtaining the SIM card was to communicate more with his mother, who was very upset.”
Mr Webb explained the prisoner received an allocation of 300 minutes per month on a prison service issued mobile phone but “these had been used up”.
Sentencing Corrigal to 120 days imprisonment, Sheriff Gary Aitken said: “Given your record, the nature of the offence and your circumstances I consider no sentence other than custodial is appropriate.”
