A man who attempted to smuggle mobile phones and £23,000 worth of drugs over a prison wall has been jailed for 27 months.

Joshua Lewis, 25, of Cornwall Road, Hornsey was sentenced on April 9 at Blackfriars Crown Court, for attempting to smuggle cocaine, cannabis, MDMA, mobile phones and other psychoactive substances in HMP Pentonville.

He pleaded guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court.

Police were patrolling HMP Pentonville on August 13, 2016 when they saw a sting line coming down from the prison and set up surveillance.

At around 2.30am Mr Lewis walked up to the string and when he was approached by police he ran away, making his escape after a five minute chase.

While running, Mr Lewis dropped bags containing 19 mobile phones, 405.78g of psychoactive substances, 17 MDMA tablets, a total of 86.291g of cannabis and 0.258g of cocaine.

Mr Lewis was identified after DNA was found on his phone.

On January 28, 2017 Mr Lewis was arrested in Hackney and charged with these offences.

He was remanded in custody to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court the following day.

He was later remanded in custody to appear at Blackfriars Crown Court on February 26, 2017.

Islington’s neighbourhoods inspector Steve Murfin said: “This individual was found carrying a substantial amount of controlled drugs and phones.

“Due to the vigilance of officers, it was prevented from entering the prison.

“We work closely with the Prison Service to gather intelligence to carry out proactive operations to arrest and prosecute those who commit this crime.”

Prisons minister Rory Stewart said: “I am determined to stop drugs being smuggled into our prisons. They are illegal, they fuel violence, undermine our programs of education, and ultimately threaten public safety.

“This is a great example of how we can begin to tackle this problem - good detective work by police leading to a major seizure of cocaine, illegal phones and psychoactive drugs.”