More than a dozen current or former inmates of Peterhead prison have been handed a fine or more time in jail after being caught with unauthorised sim cards behind bars.
Six current inmates were each handed £250 fines but were afforded no time to pay and so will serve 14 days behind bars.
And seven recently released prisoners were handed fines of between £250 and £300.
Fiscal depute Jennifer Pritchard, who dealt with each of the men in turn, said they were all found within HMP Grampian, with the exception of one prisoner from HMP Barlinnie and one from HMP Ochil Glen, with unapproved sim cards between October 2021 and February this year.
The sims were being used within prison-issued mobile phones.
Those phones are handed to prisoners as standard now after being introduced by Scottish Prison Service in July 2020 when face-to-face visits from loved ones were banned to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
Each prisoner receives a regulated mobile phone restricted to just “10 or so” numbers.
The Press and Journal later reported that hundreds of those mobile phones were blacklisted and confiscated from prisoners in HMP Grampian.
Peterhead Sheriff Court heard one prisoner, Scott Anderson, 33, was just a newly-wed when he was held on remand and so used the card to contact his wife in Shetland. The court handed him a fine which was converted to 14 days imprisonment.
Like the others, he was also punished at the time by having his privileges taken away for 14 days.
For former prisoner Jamie Davidson, 27, that two-week loss of privileges included a “loss of wages, recreation and use of phones,” his defence agent Debbie Ginniver said.
“He was also due to progress to open conditions and that was revoked.”
He was fined £250.
The use of phones in prison was described as a “perennial problem” by Justice Secretary Keith Brown MSP when he visited HMP Grampian’s Family Centre and Help Hub in July.
HMP Grampian governor Mike Hebden previously told the Press and Journal that some unregulated phones “can be used for nefarious purposes.”
The phones, which do not have a camera or internet access, are monitored in the same way as standard hallway prison phones would be.
In the past five weeks no less than 25 people have appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court charged with having an unauthorised sim inside their prison phone.
On Monday alone, 13 were sentenced.
Connor Scobbie, 25, of Gordon Terrace, Invergordon, George Cowie, 26, of Provost Fraser Driver, Aberdeen, Aaron Graham, 33, of Viking Place, Portlethen, and Dylis Lindo, 28, of Coningham Terrace, Aberdeen, were each fined £250.
Robson Curry, 25, of Shore Street, Fraserburgh, and Daniel Edwards, 37, of Huskisson Street, Liverpool, received higher fines of £300.
Meanwhile, Martin Brooks, 26, Sandy Mundie, 37, Stuart Kelly, 44, Craig Neill, 32, and Daniel Robertson, 38, all prisoners of HMP Grampian, were fined £250 but handed 14 days in jail instead.
New technology used to find sims
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “The Scottish Prison Service deploys a variety of strategic, tactical and technological responses to mitigate against illicit articles such as mobile phones being introduced in the prison estate.
“We continue to invest in the development of new technology to detect, deter and reduce their availability and supply in what is a continuously evolving and dynamic area.
“All instances where illicit articles are recovered are reported to Police Scotland.”
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