THE matriarch of a Teesside drugs dynasty serving eight years in prison could be locked up for even longer if she persists in trying to hide her ill-gotten gains from prosecutors, London's High Court was told.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) wants an additional jail term imposed on Maureen McPartland for contempt of court.

The CPS claims McPartland has put more than £80,000 into an offshore bank account after being jailed for ten years at Teesside Crown Court last December.

McPartland, 44, of Roscoe Street, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply heroin and having cannabis resin with intent to supply.

Her sentence was reduced to eight years by the Court of Appeal, which heard she had been named "the Big Boss" in the drugs ring.

But McPartland said she had acted under the influence of her late husband, John, and had been pressured into taking over the drugs operation when he was jailed for 12 years for heroin dealing in 1998.

McPartland was also made the subject of a £179,870 confiscation order and all her realisable assets were effectively frozen.

Yesterday, Crown Prosecution Service lawyers argued at London's High Court that McPartland had plotted from prison to sell a house she owned in Melbourne Close, Middlesbrough, and put the proceeds into a Gibraltar bank account, in breach of the court order.

The judge said that, if the allegations were proved, they would amount to a "very serious contempt" of court.

McPartland could, if found guilty, be given a substantial jail term, to be served consecutively to the eight-year sentence she is already serving.

Adjourning the case for six weeks, the judge said it would be wrong to make any definite findings against McPartland in her absence and she should be in court to defend herself.