{"id":1383,"date":"2025-03-26T16:39:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T17:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/?p=1383"},"modified":"2025-03-27T11:27:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T11:27:55","slug":"prison-chief-had-fling-with-inmate-who-gave-her-a-mercedes-after-releasing-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/26\/prison-chief-had-fling-with-inmate-who-gave-her-a-mercedes-after-releasing-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Prison chief \u2018had fling with inmate who gave her a Mercedes after releasing him\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t\t\"Keri\t<\/div>
Keri Pegg, former governor of HMP Kirkham, arrives at Preston Crown Court (Picture: PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A prison governor got into an inappropriate relationship with an inmate who gave her a \u00a312,000 Mercedes paid for in drugs after she fast-tracked his release from jail, a court heard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kerri Pegg, 42, was seen as a \u2018rising star\u2019 in the Prison Service, quickly climbing the career ladder from graduate entrant to prison\u00a0governor\u00a0in six years, Preston Crown Court heard.<\/p>\n

But she \u2018didn\u2019t play by the rules\u2019 and while\u00a0governor\u00a0at HMP Kirkham in Lancashire<\/a> began a relationship with drug dealer Anthony Saunderson, it is said.<\/p>\n

Barbara-Louise Webster, opening the case for the prosecution, told the jury of seven women and five men: \u2018Her downfall was two-fold, the first, despite having a good income, she lived beyond her means.<\/p>\n

\u2018She spent all her income and more, incurring debts and she had county court judgements made against her.<\/p>\n

\u2018As a consequence, she became vulnerable and open to exploitation.<\/p>\n

\u2018The second was that she became emotionally and personally involved with a serving prisoner, Anthony Saunderson and later accepted an expensive car, a Mercedes C class, which was paid for by him out of his proceeds of criminal activity, i.e. trading in drugs.\u2019<\/p>\n

Pegg denies two counts of misconduct in a public office, one by having a relationship with Saunderson and the second by failing to disclose county court judgements about her debts.<\/p>\n

She also denies one count of possessing criminal property, the Mercedes car, from Saunderson.<\/p>\n

Pegg joined the prison service in 2012 as a graduate entrant, working at prisons including, Risley, Liverpool and Styal and by April 2018, was a\u00a0governor\u00a0at HMP Kirkham, where Saunderson was reaching the end of a lengthy sentence for drugs offences.<\/p>\n

But from the start of her time at the jail there were concerns about Pegg being inappropriately close to prisoners, jurors heard.<\/p>\n

It was noted she spent a lot of time in her office with Saunderson and in October 2018, he put in a request to be released on temporary licence.<\/p>\n

Though such requests are routine there are clear and very specific rules for how they should be dealt with \u2013 rules which Pegg broke, Ms Webster said.<\/p>\n

She did not have authority to approve the release, but intervened and approved the application without notifying the official who should have dealt with it, it was claimed.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Keri\t<\/div>
Pegg is accused of two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of possession of criminal property (Picture: PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Days later she was moved to another jail, later becoming duty\u00a0governor\u00a0at HMP Lancaster Farms.<\/p>\n

Saunderson was released from prison in May 2019 and in early 2020, was using an Encrochat encrypted mobile phone, used by serious, organised criminals to send messages and secretly communicate.<\/p>\n

When the system was cracked by law enforcement agencies it showed Saunderson was involved in massive drug trafficking. He has since been convicted for those offences.<\/p>\n

But other messages also showed the \u2018ongoing nature\u2019 of his relationship with Pegg, the court heard.<\/p>\n

On April 6, 2020, Saunderson was sent a message on Encrochat saying \u2018car her for ya bird 12 quid or work\u2019 and a photo of the black Mercedes coupe.<\/p>\n

The \u201812 quid\u2019 meant \u00a312,000 and \u2018work\u2019 meant drugs, jurors were told.<\/p>\n

Saunderson asked \u2018what work they want\u2019 and he was told \u2018top or weed\u2019 \u2013 that is, cocaine or cannabis.<\/p>\n

Two days later Saunderson arranged for \u201817 packs\u2019 to be dropped off in Manchester to pay for the car, it is alleged.<\/p>\n

The Mercedes was then registered to Pegg at her home on April 11, 2020, and a message to Saunderson from a friend read: \u2018where u ya seedy man u and Peggy out floating orrel in the new whip?\u2019<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Keri\t<\/div>
Pegg, 42, was seen as a \u2018rising star\u2019 in the Prison Service, quickly climbing the career ladder from graduate entrant to prison\u00a0governor, Preston Crown Court heard (Picture: PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pegg was arrested at her home on November 19, 2020, with police finding expensive items of designer clothes.<\/p>\n

They also found a toothbrush and a pair of flip flops at her flat.<\/p>\n

Both items were found to have mixed DNA samples on them, matching the DNA of Pegg and Saunderson.<\/p>\n

And paperwork seized showed Pegg was the subject of a number of county court judgements for unpaid debts.<\/p>\n

The trial continues.<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keri Pegg, former governor of HMP Kirkham, arrives at Preston Crown Court (Picture: PA) A prison governor got into an inappropriate relationship with an inmate who gave her a \u00a312,000 Mercedes paid for in drugs after she fast-tracked his release from jail, a court heard. Kerri Pegg, 42, was seen as a \u2018rising star\u2019 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1389,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/1389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}