A CONVICTED Oldbury bank robber who hatched a plot to smuggle heroin worth over £8,000 to inmates inside Featherstone Prison has been locked up for a further five years.

John Hickinbottom recruited his recently bereaved niece, who lives in Rowley Regis, and an ex-convict to buy the drugs and get them into the prison.

But 21-year-old Takima Hickinbottom got "cold feet" and she pulled out of the plot at the last minute, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Craig Hughes, aged 42, bought the Class A drug and he handed it over to Takima Hickinbottom and the pair had arranged to visit her uncle in the prison.

But neither turned up for the visit, said Gurdeep Garcha prosecuting.

He said: "The authorities believed that was going to be the day the drugs ordered by John Hickinbottom were to be smuggled into the prison."

The police were notified and they went to the home of Takima Hickinbotton in Reservoir Road and to the Parks Lane, Tipton property where Hughes lived.

When searched Takima Hickinbottom was found to have a package of heroin up her sleeve which was worth £1,780 in street deals but £8,800 in inflated prison prices.

John Hickinbottom who lived in Blakeley Hall Road, Oldbury - he has 115 previous offences on his record and is currently serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection - set the plot in motion, said Mr Garcha with a string of phone calls to the other two defendants.

Mr Garcha said: "He set out how and when the drugs were to be purchased and how the deal would be financed."

All three pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle drugs into Featherstone Prison, near Wolverhampton.

Hughes was jailed for two years eight months while Takima Hickinbottom was sent into custody for 18 months.

Janaka Siriwardena defending the niece said she lost her mother just months before the offence and it was her uncle who suggested the smuggling plan.

Sunita Mahtab-Shaikh for Hughes said he had been persuaded to join the plot by friends of John Hickinbottom.

John Hickenbottom’s defence barrister, Paul Mytton said he accepted full responsibility for all that took place.

Recorder Geoffrey Kelly told the inmate: "You believe the rules of society do not apply to you and that they are there to be broken.

"The way you exploited your niece after the death of her mother was abhorrent."