A pharmacy technician has been sentenced to more than six years in prison after smuggling drugs and other prohibited items into jail via her bra for a prisoner with whom she had developed a relationship.
Tanya Petrie, 61, was working for Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust at HMP Bristol when she became involved in what was described as a flirtatious relationship with an inmate.
The woman, from Worle, North Somerset, was caught in October 2023 after police observed her collecting a package from a wheelie bin close to the prison.
She retrieved the parcel at around 6.30am, said to have intended to pass it on to her prisoner boyfriend.
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The package contained around two ounces of high-purity cocaine, 77g of spice paste – a synthetic substance designed to produce effects similar to cannabis – as well as tobacco.
Petrie was arrested at approximately 8am that day on suspicion of taking prohibited items into a prison.
During questioning, she told police that a prisoner had initially contacted her through Facebook, after which their communications became flirtatious.
She admitted that she had been offered £800 for collecting the package, with the money having been left inside the wheelie bin.
Petrie also confessed to previously taking seven SIM cards into the prison in return for £2,000.
Her offences resulted in two convictions at Bristol Crown Court.
In January 2025, she was found guilty of conveying a List B prohibited article into or out of a prison.
The following month, she was convicted of conspiring to convey a List A prohibited article into or out of a prison.
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Petrie was sentenced to six years and three months in custody in February 2026.
During sentencing, the judge heard that the cocaine was approximately 80 per cent pure, and could have generated a value of between £12,500 and £21,000 within the prison.
The court also considered Petrie’s financial circumstances and her relationship with the prisoner when assessing her motives.
The judge said she had continued communicating with the inmate despite knowing that he was serving a prison sentence, while also choosing to risk detection because she was experiencing financial trouble.
The case was subsequently considered by a General Pharmaceutical Council hearing, which concluded that Petrie should be removed from the professional register.
Joanna Bower, who chaired the hearing, said Petrie’s conduct represented a serious breach of the standards expected within the pharmacy profession, adding that her actions demonstrated a disregard for the welfare of prisoners in her care, and compromised the prison’s wider governance and security arrangements.
The hearing found that Petrie had breached the trust placed in her, failed to demonstrate professional integrity, and crossed appropriate boundaries by maintaining flirtatious contact with a prisoner through social media.
It was also concluded that using her professional position to introduce contraband into the prison was a serious abuse of trust, and exposed prisoners to a significant risk of harm.
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