A 52-YEAR-old grandmother who was caught smuggling drugs into a HMP Hewell to help her son, has escaped jail because she has to look after her granddaughter.

Katherine Nash was trapped by a sniffer dog on April 9 this year as she tried to smuggle £5 worth of cannabis into the prison in Tardebigge, inside her bra, Worcester Crown Court was told.

She told officers her son had been sent to the jail on remand five days before and had been told he would be hurt if she did not take in the drugs, Zaheer Afzal, prosecuting, told the court.

Nash, of Radford Drive, Walsall, pleaded guilty to taking a banned item into the prison.

Brijinder Chaudry defending, said it had been "a desperate and foolish action" because she believed the threats to be real and feared for her son, who was later moved to another jail.

He said she was bringing up her seven-year-old granddaughter on her own and the girl would be taken into care if she went to prison for the offence, which carries a maximum 10-year term.

Recorder Marcus Tregilgas-Davey told Nash she would have been sent straight to prison if not for the girl.

"You have badly let her down," he said. "A sentence upon you would be a sentence on her as well."

He gave Nash an 18 month sentence suspended for two years and ordered her to pay £535 towards costs.