SCANDAL OF CELL PHONE GANGSTERS

Violent inmates abuse mobile roll-out

- Mark McGivern

Gangsters in Scottish jails are using the free roll-out of mobile phones to prisoners to conduct operations and extort cash from the inside.

And inmates’ own phones are being used against them as violent prisoners use them to contact relatives and demand cash for drug debts.

Feeble security in the low-tech Nokia handsets means any sim card can be used – leading to huge abuses of the system designed to keep offenders in contact with loved ones.

Jail insiders have told how: Cash is being extorted from prisoners’ relatives. Phones taken from weaker prisoners are used for criminality. Cons sell on handsets for £50. Halls are being flooded with bootleg sim cards that enable prisoners to call who they like.

Handsets were given to inmates after the coronavirus outbreak forced prison authorities to stop visits.