![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_AN_DL_24-02-26_TanyaPetrie.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTanya was caughter after police saw her retrieving an item from a wheelie bin<\/p>\n
Tanya Petrie, 61(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)<\/p>\n
A 61-year-old woman has been jailed after sneaking drugs into prison.<\/p>\n
Tanya Petrie, a former pharmacy technician at HMP Bristol, “abused her position of trust” to smuggle drugs into prison.<\/p>\n
Petrie, from Worle, Weston-Super-Mare, was caught after police observed her retrieving a package from a residential wheelie bin in Somerdale Avenue in Bristol.<\/p>\n
She then attended the prison, where police say she was detained, searched and subsequently arrested on suspicion of being part of a conspiracy to take prohibited items into prison.<\/p>\n
Petrie was found guilty by a jury at Bristol Crown Court<\/a> on Thursday, February 12, of conspiring to bring or convey a list A prohibited article into prison and sentenced to six years behind bars.<\/p>\n She previously pleaded guilty to conveying a list B prohibited article into a prison. She was sentenced on Monday, February 16, to six years and three months in prison.<\/p>\n After being arrested at work, Petrie was searched while in custody and Petrie informed officers at Avon and Somerset Police that she had a package on her person and handed the officer a cling-film wrapped package.<\/p>\n Officers say this was later discovered to contain four packages of class B drugs, two packages of class A drugs (cocaine) and tobacco.<\/p>\n Following further investigative enquiries, police believed that Petrie had made an earlier trip to Somerdale Avenue on the morning of October 9, 2023.<\/p>\n In an interview, Petrie stated that she had taken money from the wheelie bin which she used to purchase SIM cards from a local garage.<\/p>\n She then snuck this into the prison and gave it to a prisoner.<\/p>\n Officers conducted in-depth data analysis and identified two phone numbers which were being used within the prison.<\/p>\n The phone was linked to prisoner Kyle Joyner, 32.<\/p>\n Officers discovered that Joyner had been using the phone to contact one of the occupants of the property in Somerdale Avenue, Casey Collins, 23, from Knowle<\/a> West.<\/p>\n Collins was responsible for placing the item in the wheelie bin that Petrie collected in October 2023.<\/p>\n Joyner, Collins and Petrie were all charged in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n Joyner and Collins pleaded guilty to conveying listed A prohibited items into the prison in January 2025 and were jailed for three years and two years and four months respectively.<\/p>\n For Joyner, this sentence will be served in addition to his existing prison sentence of eight years and eight months.<\/p>\n Senior Investigating Officer, DI Tim Seaman from the Serious and Organised Crime Team, said: \u201cThis case shows the proactive and determined work carried out by our team and our partners to uncover and dismantle a criminal conspiracy operating both inside and outside the prison walls.<\/p>\n \u201cBy working closely with colleagues at HMP Bristol, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Counter Corruption and the Regional Prison Corruption team within the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit, we were able to swiftly identify the actions of a member of staff who was abusing her position of trust to smuggle dangerous drugs and illicit items into the prison.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch actions enable organised crime, fuel violence, and undermine the hard work of honest staff who dedicate themselves to running secure and rehabilitative environments.<\/p>\n \u201cThis investigation sends a clear message: our investigations into organised crime will identify those who facilitate organised criminality and we will work tirelessly with our partners, and use every tactic available to bring those involved in corruption to justice \u2013 regardless of their role or position.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from BristolLive?Making us your preferred source on Google means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add BristolLive as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.Or read more<\/a> about selecting your preferred sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tanya was caughter after police saw her retrieving an item from a wheelie bin Tanya Petrie, 61(Image: Avon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,30,188,393,4884,16656,16,15,11158],"class_list":{"0":"post-786803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-knowle","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-weston-super-mare"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116128147314381444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}