A teenager got caught with a package containing cannabis and mobile phones when he tried to visit a prisoner at HMP Parc to pay off a drug debt.
Ethan Ings, 18, attended the Bridgend prison at around 10.40am on March 8 in order to deliver the package to an inmate. But when he reached the search area he was approached by a security officer who asked Ings to accompany him to a private search room.
When he reached the room Ings placed his hand down his trousers and produced a package wrapped in cling film and gave it to the officer.
It was later found to contain 27.5g of cannabis, 10 tablets, 17.6 of tobacco, two black Zanco mobile phones, sim cards, and black cables.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard Ings was interviewed and claimed he thought the package contained tobacco only and he had been paid £300 to bring it into the prison.
The defendant, of previous good character, was said to have carried out the act in order to pay off a drug debt after losing his job, which left him unable to fuel his cannabis habit. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conveying a prohibited item into prison.
Defence barrister Derrick Gooden said: "The defendant has made a fatal error of judgement. It was ultimately his decision to place those items where they were and he blames himself for getting into that position through his cannabis use and built-up debt.
"He was given the opportunity to pay off that debt by taking those items that weren't meant to be in prison into prison.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Twomlow said: "It's behaviour like this which causes all sorts of difficulties in a prison, all of which are really quite obvious.
"The effects of such offending on the prison regime and the difficulty it presents means deterrent sentences need to be passed."
Ings, of Aberporth Road, Gabalfa , Cardiff , was sentenced to 14 months detention in a young offenders' institute.
