A PRISONER caught with an illicit mobile phone saw his jail sentence extended by four months.

Michael Page was found hiding the tampered with phone in his Barlinnie prison cell following a search.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that around 8.45am on May 19, last year, two prison officers carried out an intelligence led search of Page’s cell.

They carried out a body search first and nothing was recovered.

The 28-year-old was asked if he had any unauthorised items in his cell and he said he did not.

He was then asked if he had a prison issued mobile phone and also said he did not.

The two officers searched the cell and found a black Nokia phone that was prison issue but had been tampered with by having a new SIM card put in it.

In reply to the prison officers he said: “It’s just one big game.”

Sheriff Patricia Pryce said to Page’s lawyer: “This isn’t his first one of these [charges]. It isn’t much of a game if you keep getting caught.”

His defence brief said: “Mr Page apologises for this.

“The prison was on a sort of lockdown at that stage and wasn’t having in-person visits so prisoners had been issued mobile phones.”

The lawyer added that Page had not been issued one so had borrowed a phone from another prisoner and inserted a SIM card that was not prison issue.

He said Page is close to

his large family of five sisters and three brothers, who all live in the Dumfries area and he was missing them as he is used to family support.

But Sheriff Pryce said: “If he wants to stay close to his family why does he keep getting put in jail?

“I don’t like mobile phones in jails, I don’t like mobile phones being tampered with, and I don’t like mobile phones being secreted because they can be used for nefarious purposes.”

The sheriff hit Page with a four-month prison sentence, reduced from six months thanks to his early guilty plea.