(Image: Cleveland Police)
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a woman who tried to bring hard drugs into a County Durham jail.
Rebecca Hunter, 37, is facing four counts of conveying a prohibited article, all drugs, into Low Newton Prison, on the outskirts of Durham.
The various substances, cocaine, ketamine, pregabalin and zopiclone, were found when she was searched upon admission to the prison, on November 29, last year.
Hunter, of Stump Cross, Guisborough, was being taken into custody after being given a ten-week prison sentence by Teesside magistrates for shoplifting offences, which put her in breach of a criminal behaviour order that was only issued against her two months earlier.
Warrant issued for arrest of Rebecca Hunter after she failed to turn up for hearing at Durham Crown Court, facing charges of conveying drugs into Low Newton Prison, in the city
(Image: Cleveland Police)
Guilty pleas to the drugs offences were indicated when she appeared before magistrates last month and she was bailed to appear at Durham Crown Court for a plea hearing in the case, on Wednesday (August 12).
Upon her non-appearance for that hearing, her counsel, Eleanor Bohill, told Judge Richard Clews: “She informs me she doesn’t have the means to travel.”
Judge Clews replied: “The magistrates’ court bailed her a month ago and she has had plenty of time to put her finances together.”
He agreed to adjourn the hearing until today (Thursday, August 13) but said that the defendant ought to attend or be faced with a bench warrant for her arrest.
The judge said it would convey the “wrong message” to excuse people from making a 20-plus mile journey to appear in court.
“I’m afraid she does have to come,” he told Miss Bohill.
When she, again, failed to appear at the court for the re-scheduled hearing today, Judge Clews lived up to his pledge and issued the warrant for Hunter’s arrest, not backed with bail should once she is detained.