A MOTHER-OF-FOUR who was involved in a plot to smuggle heroin into a young offenders' institute has been spared jail.

But Judge Les Spittle warned Sonia Ford, 39, she will be locked up if she gets into any further trouble.

Ford was given an 18-month rehabilitation order after Judge Spittle heard how she has held her family together despite a prison sentence for a similar offence in 2002.

He told Ford: "You have put your feet on the right path, and if you want to keep your family together, don't offend again."

Ford's involvement in the plot was outlined by Roger Moore, prosecuting, at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Mr Moore said microscopic amounts of the drug were found hidden in mail delivered to two inmates at Deerbolt Young Offenders' Institute, near Barnard Castle, County Durham, on November 22 and December 10, 2002.

Ford said others were involved in sending the drugs but she had been told to buy them to repay a debt to one of the inmates.

The court heard how Ford was jailed for 15 months in March last year for trying to smuggle heroin into the inmates while they were in Castington Young Offenders' Institute, Northumberland, weeks earlier.

Her barrister, Martina Connelly, said that had all the offences been dealt with at the same time, she may not have had any additional punishment.

Miss Connelly said: "In the first instance she was under emotional pressure. She accepted what she did was wrong and the way she paid for it was with a prison sentence.

"She essentially has paid the price for that and it is somewhat of an injustice to her to serve her custodial sentence and be released on licence and have these matters resurrected."

Ford, of Evistone Gardens, Walker, Newcastle, admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs