Prison governor from Wigan jailed over relationship with ‘Jesse Pinkman’ drug boss

Kerri Pegg, 42, swapped her Honda Jazz for a £12,000 Mercedes C class paid for with 34kg of amphetamines by Anthony Saunderson, a major organised crime bossnow serving 35 years behind bars.

Pegg signed off on temporary release for Saunderson while she was a governor at HMP Kirkham.

When anti-corruption police raided her apartment, they found expensive jewellery and designer clothes, along with size 10 Hugo Boss slip-ons and a toothbrush with Saunderson’s DNA.

Known to criminal associates as “Jesse Pinkman”, the drug dealer in Breaking Bad, or “James Gandolfini”, who played lothario mafia boss Tony Soprano in the eponymous TV series, even his gang members grumbled that their boss was spending too much time with Pegg, neglecting his wife and “work”.

Pegg was seen as a “rising star” in the Prison Service, climbing the career ladder from graduate entrant to prison governor in six years.

During Pegg’s Preston Crown Court trial, it emerged that Saunderson had developed and delivered a programme titled BADD (Beating Alcohol and Drug Dependency) for inmates at several jails while at the time being a major drug dealer, running an amphetamines factory.

Pegg claimed her contact with Saunderson was due to his involvement in BADD.

She was convicted of two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of possession of criminal property following a three-week trial last month.

Phil Copple, chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, said: “The criminal misconduct in this case lets down the public we serve as well as the vast majority of honest and hard-working prison staff, but it also demonstrates our determination to take robust action against those who fail to achieve proper professional standards.”

The court heard Pegg had worked in the Probation Service for eight years.

Married at 26 and divorced four years later after her husband’s building and renovations firm went bust, she joined the Prison Service for a new challenge.

Pegg joined in 2012 as a graduate entrant, working at prisons including Risley, Liverpool and Styal, and by April 2018 she was a governor at HMP Kirkham, where Saunderson was reaching the end of a 10-year sentence.

He had been one of Merseyside’s most wanted fugitives for importing £19m of cocaine in corned beef shipments from Argentina.

From the start of her time at Kirkham there were concerns about Pegg being inappropriately close to Saunderson, with the two often in her office with the door closed.

She told jurors there were “cultural issues” at the jail and clashed with bosses over her “progressive” and “hands-on” open-door policy with prisoners.

In October 2018, Saunderson put in a release on temporary licence request which Pegg signed off, despite not having the authority.

Saunderson was released in May 2019 and within two months was involved in another massive drug conspiracy.

Pegg’s trial heard he continued contact with prisons in the BADD programme and was also still close to Pegg, who was at the time the regional official co-ordinating drug strategy in six prisons in the North West.

Saunderson and his gang were producing and supplying drugs on an industrial scale from a lab on the England/Wales border and storage unit in Aintree.

He was jailed for 35 years in 2022 after law enforcement agencies cracked the Encrochat system: the phone network used by serious organised criminals.

It revealed Saunderson’s drug dealing, and his relationship with Pegg.

When police raided her Orrell apartment in November 2020, the Mercedes paid for by Saunderson in drugs was parked outside.

They discovered designer clothes, handbags and jewellery, and found Pegg living way beyond her means, buying Jimmy Choo shoes and Chanel necklaces.

Detectives discovered that despite her £3,000 a month income, Pegg was deep in debt and had not declared three county court judgments which amounted to misconduct, as debts make officials vulnerable to corruption.

Her four credit cards were “maxed out” and she had 6p in her savings account.

Detectives also found the toothbrush and a pair of Hugo Boss flip flops both carrying Saunderson’s DNA.

Andrew Alty, defending, in his closing speech to the jury, claimed Pegg had been “green and stupid”, a naive and gullible person who was manipulated by Saunderson.

Pegg tearfully told jurors she had been “incredibly stupid” but did not think she had done anything wrong.

Barbara-Louise Webster, prosecuting, said Pegg had a promising future, but added: “Anthony Saunderson was her downfall.”

After her arrest and resignation from the Prison Service, Pegg became the operations manager for poverty and homelessness charity The Brick, based in Wigan.

The charity was aware of her being under investigation but she kept her job with “substantial restrictions”.

Tarryn McCaffrey, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Pegg’s actions in becoming involved with a prisoner who had committed serious drug offences portrayed a total lack of integrity or judgment.

“She displayed a shocking lack of professionalism in her role, overriding rules around Saunderson’s temporary release and ignoring her obligations to declare personal debts.”

Det Insp Brian Morley, from the NWROCU’s Prison Intelligence Unit, said: “Kerri Pegg was a senior figure within the Prison Service, a public servant expected to behave to the highest standards but this was serious misconduct on her part and greatly undermines the trust given to prison staff and order in a prison.”