A pharmacy technician has been sentenced to over six years in prison for smuggling drugs valued at up to £21,000 into HMP Bristol for her inmate boyfriend. Tanya Petrie, 61, was also banned from professional practice.
Petrie worked as a pharmacy technician for Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust. While in this role, she initiated a "flirtatious online relationship" with a prisoner. In October 2023, she was observed retrieving a package from a wheelie bin near the prison. A subsequent strip search revealed the parcel contained two ounces of high-purity cocaine, 77 grams of Spice paste (a synthetic cannabis substitute), and tobacco. Police arrested Petrie on suspicion of conveying prohibited articles into a jail.
She told officers that she had been contacted by the prisoner via Facebook and engaged in flirtatious communication. Petrie stated she received £800, which was left in the wheelie bin, for the drug smuggling. She also admitted to smuggling seven SIM cards into the prison for an additional £2,000.
Petrie was convicted of conveying a List B prohibited article into or out of a prison at Bristol Crown Court in January 2025. The following month, she was found guilty of conspiracy to convey a List A prohibited article into or out of a prison. She was sentenced to six years and three months in February 2026.
The sentencing judge noted that the 80 percent pure cocaine could have fetched between £12,500 and £21,000 within the prison. The court identified Petrie's financial difficulties and her relationship with the prisoner as motivations for her actions. The judge commented on her persistence in the online relationship despite knowing he was an inmate and her choice to risk capture for financial gain.
Following the criminal proceedings, the General Pharmaceutical Council held a hearing where it was determined that Petrie would be struck off the professional register. Joanna Bower, chairing the hearing, stated that Petrie's conduct breached fundamental principles of the pharmacy profession, demonstrating a disregard for prisoner well-being and undermining the prison's governance system. Bower added that Petrie abused her position of trust, failed to maintain professional boundaries, and placed prisoners at significant risk of harm.