A WEB of phone calls and bank transfers proves prison officers, inmates and their families were locked in a conspiracy to bring contraband into a prison, a court was told.

Officers Ricky Bridger and Simon Taylor are accused of bringing cocaine, spice steroids and mobile phones to prisoners Darren Burdfield, Simon Penton, Simon Khalil, Dorian Henry and Daniel Sallis while they were incarcerated at HMP Lewes.

Burdfield’s mother Sabrina, his partner Sarah Hall, Sallis’s girlfriend Sheryl Donegan, Khalil’s ex-girlfriend Katie Rudd and Dorian Henry’s sister Danielle are all accused of playing their part in the plot, making phone calls and sending text messages to each other and transferring large sums of cash between their bank accounts.

Andrew Frymann, prosecuting at Hove Crown Court, said “Each of these conspirators is talking to the others, updating themselves, these things are not coincidences they demonstrate a conspiracy.

“Whilst these calls were being made, around that time there are money transfers being made. “

Mr Frymann told the jury that Katie Rudd had claimed not to know that a package of steroids she gave to Bridger were intended to go into Lewes prison.

She described her role in the operation as “secretarial” and that she did not know where packages were destined to end up - but Mr Frymann said her roll was more “middle management.

Mr Frymann said Sabrina Bridge’s role was as “banker” for her son who was in jail.

Hall had packaged up drugs in protein powder tubs to be taken by Taylor into the jail, Mr Frymann said.

Closing the crown’s case, Mr Frymann said: “The long arm of the law, and the long arm of this investigation, reached deep inside the bowels of HMP Lewes.”

The trial previously heard that in April 2015, two Pringles tubes were found in the prison gym containing bottles of Infiniti steroid liquid, four syringes, ten needles, an O2 SIM card, and just over 100g of the synthetic drug Spice.

A few days after the seizure, Bridger, 54, of The Oaks, Heathfield, had his car searched before work, revealing a Pringles tube in the boot containing a phone and drugs, including 6.94 grams of cocaine.

Mr Frymann called on the jury to find each of the defendants guilty of conspiracy to smuggle prohibited items into the jail.

All ten deny the charge.

The trial continues.

THE ten on trial are former prison officers Ricky Bridger, 54, of The Oaks, Heathfield, and Simon Taylor, 28, of West Way, Wick, Littlehampton.

Lewes prisoners Darren Burdfield, 33, Simon Penton, 45, and Daniel Sallis, 30, of Bexhill Road, Woodingdean, Brighton,

Burdfield’s mother Sabrina, 61, of Redwing Close, Wick, inmate girlfriends Sarah Hall, 32, of Barnet Way, Durrington, Worthing, Katie Rudd, 26, of Park Farm Lane, Maresfield, Sheryl Donegan, 30, of Bexhill Road, Woodingdean, and a sister - finance clerk Danielle Henry, 34, of Alfred Road, London

Lewes prisoner Damian Henry previously pleaded guilty to his part in the conspiracy.