DRONES can be used to help jail inmates escape and to carry out weapon drops, the Prison Officers Association (POA) annual conference heard yesterday.

POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst warned that the unchecked use of drones has become a “national security issue,” with prison staff telling of the remote-controlled aircraft “going in and out like [at] Gatwick airport.”

Opening the meeting in Eastbourne, he said: “Drones are an imminent threat, not only to prisons but to national security.