A prison officer with more than a kilo of cannabis in his home will not go to jail.
David Lawson, 46, was told by a judge that if he had intended to take the drug into Bovingdon’s Mount prison the sentence would have been ‘in a completely different ball park’.
The prosecution at St Albans Crown Court accepted that Lawson was intending to pass the cannabis on locally in Hemel Hempstead.
On Friday the court heard that 1.26 kilos of cannabis was found, along with £740 cash, when police raided Lawson’s home in Bayford Close, Hemel Hempstead, on January 24.
The prison officer, who pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply, told police he was in debt and had been suffering from depression. Robert Colover, defending, said: “The impact is that he is clearly going to lose his job.”
The judge gave Lawson a four-month jail term suspended for two years. He must attend an education, training and employment course and pay an £80 victim surcharge. The drugs will be destroyed.