Offender caught with illegal item at Polmont YOI before morning shower time

Appearing at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday, Nathan McKenzie, 19, had pleaded guilty to having possession of an unauthorised SIM card at Polmont Young Offenders Institution on October 9 last year.

Procurator fiscal depute Rachel Hill said: “It was 11am and prison officers asked the accused if he wanted to go for a shower. They notice a mobile phone on the bed with the back removed.”

Sheriff Alison Michie noted this was his first offence as an adult and placed McKenzie, 23c Fore Street, Port Glasgow, on a structured deferred sentence for six months and called for a review of the order in three month’s time.

In recent years SIM cards used in mobile phones have been smuggled in to prisons to allow prisoners to illegally communicate with the outside world.