A man has been jailed for six months just hours before he was due to be freed from prison after serving time for another offence.
Ryan McAusland admitted taking a mobile phone into Castle Huntly open prison, where he was serving the final few months of a four-year sentence for assault.
Despite being due to be released on Wednesday he was sent back to prison by Sheriff Richard McFarlane at Perth Sheriff Court.
Depute fiscal Robbie Brown told the court how prison staff noticed McAusland appeared nervous as they searched his bags after he returned from a visit home.
He said: “Staff asked the accused: ‘Do you have anything on you that you shouldn’t have?’ and he said no.
“They searched his bag. He appeared nervous so they asked him again and he produced a mobile phone.”
McAusland’s solicitor said his client had forgotten he had the phone on him when he returned and that he had returned from other periods of leave without any problems.
He said: “He should have left it outside but he didn’t realise until he was inside that he had the phone.”
McAusland, whose address was given as HMP Castle Huntly, Longforgan, pleaded guilty to bringing a mobile phone into the prisonon July 31.