A court officer who smuggled mobile phones into prison and hid a gun in his housemate’s bedroom has been jailed.

Umeir Akhtar, 27, of Lea Bridge Road in Leyton, was sentenced to six years and two months imprisonment at Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday January 12.

He pleaded guilty to three charges of bringing banned items into a prison, possessing a prohibited weapon (a gas powered handgun) and possessing ammunition.

An investigation by the Met's London prison anti-corruption team began in May 2015 when staff at HMP Thameside found mobile phones, alcohol and drugs concealed in two prisoners' legal paperwork.

A search of a different prisoner's cell in June 2015 uncovered two more mobile phones hidden in a DVD player.

A phone number found written on paperwork in a cell matched that of Akhtar's.

Akhtar, who was a court officer employed by Serco based at Inner London Crown Court, was arrested in November 2015 after his mobile phone records revealed contact with the prisoners.

A separate investigation by Trident and Area Crime Command into the firearms offences began on October 5 2015.

Officers from Waltham Forest Police executed a drugs warrant at the address where Akhtar resided.

They found a black revolver air gun, ammunition and a small quantity of cannabis hidden in the room of another occupant.

After Akhtar and a woman in her 20s were arrested, he denied any knowledge of the gun and the woman was charged with firearms offences.

However in October 2016 Akhtar requested to be re-interviewed and admitted he had hidden the gun in the woman's room a few days before the warrant was executed.

The charges against the woman were dropped and Akhtar was charged with the firearms offences on November 2 2016.

Akhtar pleaded guilty to the firearms charges on November 10 2016 and had admitted bringing banned items into prison on October 13 2016. Both cases were subsequently listed together for sentence.

Akhtar was sentenced to five years for possessing the handgun and 18 months for the ammunition, to be served concurrently.

He was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment for bringing banned items into prison, to be served consecutively to the firearms sentence.

No separate sentence was given for the possession of cannabis.

Detective Constable Barry Hart, of the Met’s Trident and Area Crime Command, said: "Umeir Akhtar told officers in interview that he felt he had ruined his life by committing these offences.

"This conviction serves as a reminder to anybody involved in the possession, supply and use of prohibited weapons that officers from Trident will continue to actively pursue and place them before the courts."