A PRISONER took extraordinary lengths in a bid to hide a mobile phone when officers confronted him by shoving the banned item up his backside.

Despite HMP Bullingdon inmate Reece Tickell's frantic efforts the phone was later retrieved and the 24-year-old has been handed more time behind bars.

Tickell appeared via videolink at Oxford Crown Court yesterday having already admitted one count of having a prohibited item while in prison.

Outlining the case Cathy Olliver said that prison officers went to Tickell's cell on September 28.

When they approached he was seen to 'insert a mobile phone in his rectum.'

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He was then put through a metal detector, prosecutors said, which confirmed that the device was where officers believed it to be.

Tickell later retrieved the item and handed it to officers.

On examining the device none of the contacts that were made were to his 'PIN list' - a list of numbers that the prison agrees its inmates are permitted to contact.

It was also revealed that Tickell was only at the prison after he was jailed in August having breached a community order imposed for dealing drugs.

He was given a 'final chance' at that hearing but failed to attend unpaid work and was jailed for 36 months.

In mitigation at yesterday's hearing defence barrister Nawaz Khan said that his client was still 'under the influence of Spice' at the time of the offending.

He added that since the offence he has become a 'mentor' at the prison and is helping fellow inmates to read and write.

Sentencing, Judge Nigel Daly said that prisoners having mobile phones in prison caused 'disciplinary problems' and they had the potential to continue organised crime from behind bars.

Tickell was jailed for four months for the single offence, which will be consecutive to his current sentence.