A 'CLUMSY' woman who was snared in a bid to pass 'street valium' pills to her incarcerated sister during a jail visit has been admonished by a sheriff.

Claire Hand, from Dalry, admitted a charge of attempting to bring 10 etizolam tablets into Greenock Prison, claiming that she was 'concerned for the mental health' of her sibling.

Hand, 36, was watched by prison officers passing a package containing the class C drugs across a table to her sister.

Both were restrained and the pills were seized and sent away for testing.

She had been placed on a structured deferred sentence after pleading guilty to the offence.

But at a follow-up hearing, Hand was spared punishment after Greenock Sheriff Court was told she had stayed out of trouble since the incident in 2019.

Sheriff Anthony McGeehan told her that a background report showed that she 'recognised the consequences of that offence and your misplaced priorities at that time'.

Addressing a previous calling of the case last July, defence solicitor Peter Murray said: "Foolishly she agreed to bring something in and she was caught in the act.

"She is anxious that the court accepts that her motivation for bringing this in and introducing it to the prison was simply genuine concern for her sister's wellbeing, not for any financial or commercial gain.

"It was well-intended but wrong-headed."

Lawyer Aidan Gallagher told a previous hearing that "it was a clumsy effort but also a serious one".

Hand was admonished and dismissed.