A CON came up with a tired old excuse for missing a meeting with her probation officer - she had been asleep for three days.

Shelene Brown was ordered to keep up regular appointments after luckily being spared prison in January for a drugs offence.

But the 33-year-old mother was back at Teesside Crown Court today (Thursday) for breaching the terms of her suspended sentence order.

She had twice failed to turn up for dates with her Probation Service worker in Hartlepool during April, the court heard.

Her lawyer said Brown accepted deliberately skipping the first one, but felt she had a genuine reason for missing the second.

Martin Scarborough, mitigating, told the court: "She suffers quite badly from asthma, and had an attack the day before.

"She ended up going to bed for a lie down, and sleeping for three days - but the Probation Service did not accept that.

"There has been no new offending since January, but her lifestyle has been chaotic and her compliance has been erratic."

Brown got the suspended sentence for trying to smuggle sleeping pills into prison for her burglar boyfriend last October.

She told guards her jailbird partner was struggling to cope behind bars, and thought the present would "cheer him up".

Mr Scarborough admitted: "She was dealt with leniently for taking drugs into prison . . . she is still in treatment herself.

"It was accepted that she was not taking them in for onward sale, because it is acknowledged that it is a currency in prison.

"It was specifically for her partner, who was struggling at the time. He had not asked her to take the drugs in for him."

Guards saw her looking nervous as she chatted with Christopher Hull in the visiting area at Holme House Prison, Stockton.

Officers swooped when they saw Brown fidgeting about in the waistband of her trousers for the pills, the court was told.

Brown admitted breaching her suspended sentence which was imposed for conveying a prohibited article into prison.

At that time, Recorder Felicity Davies told her: "Any breach is likely to result in the court having no sympathy."

Yesterday, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, imposed an eight-week curfew and told her: "This is your last opportunity."