A drug-running primary school teacher who tried to smuggle letters laced with narcotics into jails across Britain has been banned from the classroom for life.
Vivienne Williams posted a number of fake packages soaked in the Class B drug Spice, that were destined for prisons in Nottingham, Wandsworth and Cardiff.
The bogus parcels were all disguised as legal documents and were sent from Williams’ Wembley home while she was teaching children at Elsley Primary School.
But the hapless crook’s £17,000 drugs ring was exposed by Nottingham Police after they intercepted some of the letters at HMP Lowdham Grange.
Williams was jailed for 30 months back in October 2023, having pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to convey banned articles into prison, possession of articles for use in fraud, and a communications offence relating to the prison phone calls.
During her sentencing, a judge said the disgraced educator’s actions ‘rode roughshod over the systems and protections put in place by the prison’.
Williams, 30, has now been banned from the classroom for life, following a probe by the Teaching Regulation Authority (TRA).
The education watchdog found William’s actions ‘fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession’.
Teacher Vivienne Williams posted a number of fake packages soaked in the Class B drug Spice, that were destined for prisons in Nottingham , Wandsworth and Cardiff
the hapless crook’s £17,000 drugs ring was exposed by Nottingham Police after they intercepted some of the letters at HMP Lowdham Grange (pictured)
‘The panel found this behaviour to be totally incompatible with being a teacher,’ the TRA concluded in its report.
Williams started working at Elsley Primary School in September 2016, the panel said.
But by 2020, the crooked teacher had set up her own drug smuggling operation.
Williams was found to be contacting an inmate at HMP Lowdham Grange in July 2020, Nottinghamshire Police said.
The reason behind the contact was to try and set up a three-way phone conversation with prisoners jailed elsewhere in the UK.
But in October 2020, a number of packages marked and franked as legal documents but containing paper laced with Spice were seized as they arrived at Lowdham Grange.
Others were later recovered ready to be sent to other prisons – including HMPs Wandsworth and Cardiff – from Williams’ Wembley home.
The plot was first uncovered following a probe by the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU).
The total value of the narcotics seized was estimated at £17,000 but would have been worth ‘significantly more had it entered the prison estate’, police said.
Williams was a teacher at Elsley Primary School, in Wembley, at the time of her crimes
Staff at Elsley Primary School were told of Williams’ arrest on June 8, 2021. Williams resigned from her position at the primary days later, on June 16.
Speaking at the time, Detective Inspector Richard Cornell, from the EMSOU, said: ‘Vivienne Williams was a key player in this plot to supply mind-altering drugs to prisoners.
‘She exploited her legitimate phone access to an inmate by patching in others to the calls, enabling them to make their criminal plans, and then followed through with those plans by assisting in the movement of the drugs.
‘Thankfully, we were soon on to them and the whole illegal operation was brought to an end before the drugs could reach their intended recipients.’
The sentencing judge said Williams believed disguising her hidden drugs as legal letters would mean they would be able to slip past prison security checks.
‘Williams used the stamps that she had to give the appearance that the letters she was sending in were from solicitors, and contained privileged legal communications, with the belief that the prison would not be allowed to open or examine the contents of those letters,’ the judge said at sentencing, the TRA reported.
‘In addition, Miss Williams enabled those in custody to communicate with others they were not entitled to, acting as an intermediary on some calls, and receiving calls from illegally possessed phones on other occasions.’
Williams was sending drugs from her address in this street in Wembley, London
Making a judgement on behalf education secretary Bridget Phillipson, Sarah Buxcey concluded: ‘Miss Vivienne Williams is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.
‘Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved against her, I have decided that Miss Williams shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of her eligibility to teach.’
DI Cornell added: ‘Drugs in prison will not be tolerated as their use is not only illegal, but also puts the health and safety of inmates and staff at risk.
‘I am pleased the judge has recognised the seriousness of the matter with the jail term handed down.’
Williams, of previous good character, has 28 days to appeal the TRA’s prohibition order. She did not attend the TRA hearing.
