A prison officer agreed to smuggle cannabis into Bullingdon prison in return for £60, a court heard yesterday (November 8).

Allan Ellis, 50, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with conspiracy to supply cannabis resin between March 17 and May 16, 2004.

The prosecution alleged Ellis, a prison officer at HMP Bullingdon near Bicester, intended to pick up cannabis from Nicholas Christopher Lambrianou to take to his father -- also named Nicholas Lambrianou, who has since died -- who was serving a jail sentence.

As is common practice in prison, a number of conversations between Lambrianou Snr and his son were taped. The elder said that the "grey-haired guy", who had accompanied him on a visit to a relative's grave several weeks before, might be prepared to "do something for him for £60", the jury was told. The pair appeared to be cautious about being caught.

On April 3, Lambrianou Jnr suggested to his father that "the thing with the screw will have to be left for a while", the court heard.

He would later warn his father in another telephone conversation "if the Old Bill find out they will nick him and bang him up".

Ellis would later tell police in interview that he had agreed to meet Lambrianou Jnr but had not been aware that he intended to give him cannabis. Ellis, from Gadiston Crescent, Milton Keynes, denies the charge.

The jury has been told that both Lambrianous had pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge.