A pharmacy technician who hid drugs worth up to £21,000 in her bra to give to her inmate boyfriend has been jailed for six years and banned from practising. 

Tanya Petrie, 61, began a ‘flirtatious online relationship’ with a prisoner while working as a pharmacy technician for Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust at HMP Bristol, a tribunal heard.

Petrie, from Worle in North Somerset, was strip searched after being spotted retrieving a small package from a wheelie bin near the prison in October 2023. 

The parcel, contained two ounces of high-purity cocaine, 77g of Spice paste – a lab-made chemical that mimics cannabis – and tobacco.

Police saw Petrie collect the package, which she intended to deliver to her prisoner boyfriend, from the bin about 6.30am. She was arrested at 8am on suspicion of conveying prohibited articles into a jail.

She told officers she had been contacted by a prisoner on Facebook and had engaged with flirtatious communication. 

Petrie said she was paid £800, which was left in the wheelie bin. She also admitted to smuggling seven SIM cards into the jail in exchange for £2,000.

The technician was convicted of conveying a List B prohibited article into or out of a prison at Bristol Crown Court in January 2025. 

Tanya Petrie, 61, began a ‘flirtatious online relationship’ with a prisoner while working as a pharmacy technician for Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust at HMP Bristol

The following month, she was convicted of conspiracy to convey a List A prohibited article into or out of a prison. 

Petrie was jailed for six years and three months in February 2026.

The sentencing judge noted the cocaine, which was 80 per cent pure, would have been worth between £12,500 and £21,000 inside the jail.

The judge noted that Petrie’s motivations for committing the offences were her financial difficulties and her relationship with the prisoner. 

They said: ‘Firstly, entering into a flirtatious online relationship with a man that she discovered was a prisoner with whom she nevertheless persisted in flirting with.

‘Secondly, Ms Petrie was in debt and she chose to take the risk of being caught for the financial benefit.’

The case was taken to a General Pharmaceutical Council hearing where it was ruled Petrie would be struck off the professional register. 

Petrie, from Worle in North Somerset, was strip searched after being spotted retrieving a small package from a wheelie bin near the prison in October 2023

Joanna Bower, who chaired the hearing, said the technician’s actions had breached fundamental principles of the pharmacy profession. 

She said: ‘Ms Petrie’s actions showed disregard for the wellbeing of the prisoners under her care and undermined the entirety of the prison’s system of governance.

‘Ms Petrie’s actions undermined the trust placed in her and lacked integrity.

‘Ms Petrie failed to maintain professional boundaries by engaging in flirtatious communication with a prisoner via social media and Ms Petrie abused the position of trust she was in. It was considered that smuggling contraband into prison was an obvious breach of professional integrity.

‘Ms Petrie therefore violated the trust placed in her, abused her professional position and placed the prisoners under her care at significant risk of harm.’