AN inmate has been handed further time behind bars for smuggling Spice, worth £5,000, into Dartmoor Prison — fuelling what a judge called an ‘evil trade’.

Dealer Harry Eveleigh, aged 22, hid almost 100 grams of the former legal high in a soap powder box and in his dirty laundry but prison officers found the drugs in a routine cell search.

The prisoner, only a few weeks into a long stretch for a knife attack, smuggled the Spice when he was transferred from Exeter Prison.

He claimed he was bullied into taking the drug to the Princetown jail, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

Jailing him for 14 months to be served at the end of his current sentence, Recorder Edward Burgess said: ‘You played a vitally important role in the supply of drugs from one prison to another. You contributed to this evil, corrosive and corrupting trade.

‘You may have been put under some degree of pressure but you went into this with your eyes open.’

The judge said that Spice commanded a higher price behind bars and gave ruthless dealers power over weaker users — fuelling debt, violence and further crime.

Eveleigh admitted to possession of 98.6 grams of Spice with intent to supply on February 22.

He also pleaded guilty to conveying a prohibited substance into a prison.

Eveleigh was found with five wraps of tobacco weighing 130 grams.

Julia Cox, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Eveleigh was jailed for four and a half years for causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possession of a knife at Exeter Crown Court in December last year.

She added he was transferred from the prison in that city to Dartmoor on January 13.

Miss Cox said prison officers searched his cell and found five wraps of Spice in a packet of Daz and another two packets in his laundry basket.

She added that the drugs could be split into 100 deals, each at about £50 in prison.

She quoted from a statement from deputy governor Peter Lewis which stated: ‘Drugs, particularly Spice, field serious episodes of violence. Prisoners also require additional medical treatment.’

Nigel Hall, for Eveleigh, said he had been told to give the drugs to someone in HMP Dartmoor upon his transfer from Exeter Prison.