The alarm was raised when a prison officer heard a ‘loud humming noise’ in the middle of the night
Ben Earl has appeared at Hull Crown Court after drugs and phones were delivered to Hull Prison by a drone(Image: Cleveland Police)
A large quantity of drugs and a lucrative haul of mobile phones, chargers and Sim cards were secretly delivered to Hull Prison in an audacious drone drop near cells in the early hours of the morning. But the carefully planned special delivery was abruptly foiled when a vigilant prison officer suddenly heard a “loud humming noise” at 1am – and spotted a light in the sky over the prison grounds.
She raised the alarm and the banned items, potentially worth more than £20,000 for the drugs and up to £2,500 for the phones, were later found in a prisoner’s cell, Hull Crown Court heard. Ben Earl, 38, admitted possessing banned items, including mobile phones, inside Hull Prison on May 11, 2024. He also admitted possessing cannabis, a cannabinoid product, ketamine and anabolic steroids with intent to supply.
Billy Torbett, prosecuting, said that, at 1am, a prison officer on duty at Hull Prison suddenly heard a loud humming noise and saw a light in the sky over the prison grounds. She believed that it could have been a drone.
It was discovered that a drone drop had been made around the cells area. The prison officer reported what she had seen and, at 8.15am, another officer searched a cell occupied solely by Earl.
A plastic bag, containing unauthorised items, wrapped in a towel, was found on a table. Inside the bag were two other plastic bags.
They included, in one of them, six mobile phones, six chargers, five Sim cards, three lanyards and some drugs including tablets. In another bag were yellow tablets, two phones, two Sim cards, two chargers, a memory stick and a bag of white powder.
Also found was a pair of boxer shorts. There was a phone inside a jacket in the cell. Earl was taken to the segregation unit and the items were sent for forensic tests.
The drugs found included 12.1g of steroids, 12.4g and 74.g of Spice, 287g of cannabis resin, 14.2g, 3.4g and 3.4g of cannabis skunk, 6.87g of ketamine, 61 tablets and another 122 tablets of steroids. The total value of the drugs haul in a prison setting was at least £20,240, with the phones potentially worth £400 to £2,500.
During interview at the prison, Earl made no comment. He had convictions for 33 previous offences, including being jailed in June 2024 for robbery, possessing an offensive weapon, possessing a blade and possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.
Imogen Eastham-Brown, mitigating, said that Earl pleaded guilty at the first opportunity. “He was influenced by others,” she said. “He was impressionable and susceptible to this.
“He knows the difference between wrong and right and he is responsible for his actions. For nearly 10 years, he has been in and out of prison as the consequence of his own actions.”
Earl was a serving prisoner but he did not want to keep spending his time in prison. He had a trusted job in the prison kitchen at HMP Garth, Lancashire.
Earl was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Judge Gurdial Singh said that the value of the items smuggled into the prison could not begin to be estimated because they meant that criminal activity could continue inside prison by using the items.
Earl, from Stockton, made headlines in June 2024 when he was jailed at Teesside Crown Court for a total of seven-and-a-half years after he carried out a terrifying knife-point robbery on a taxi driver. He ordered the taxi in January 2022 but, when the driver asked him for the £7 fare, Earl held a knife to his throat and sprayed him in the face with a liquid.
Earl forced the driver to hand over a bag with his change inside and stole £150 from his pocket before making off from the scene. The victim went to hospital for treatment to his eyes and a cut on his hand. He was left extremely shaken by the robbery.
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