A prison officer took part in a drug trafficking operation that led to the seizure of amphetamine worth £640,000.

Russell Baillie gave his uniform to co-accused Lawrence Simonini while he was on sick leave from HMP Cornton Vale in Stirlingshire.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard on Friday that 29-year-old Simonini was caught with 20kg of the class B drug while wearing the uniform in a bid to ward off police attention.

Baillie, 31, was jailed for five years as judge John Morris QC told him he was a "bit-part player" in an extensive criminal scheme.

Simonini, from Carfin in North Lanarkshire, and a third accused Joshua Quinn, 26, from Liverpool, were also jailed for five years for their roles in the drug trafficking operation.

Undercover police arrested Simonini after stopping him on the M74 as he travelled north from Merseyside with the drugs haul in the boot of a hire car.

Their investigation revealed the prison guard uniform he was wearing belonged to Baillie, from Shotts in Lanarkshire.

A trial previously heard Simonini had hired a Toyota Verso car in Motherwell and drove to Liverpool with Baillie.

Simonini returned north in the vehicle while Baillie caught a train to Glasgow from Liverpool Lime Street station.

Baillie maintained he did not know anything about drugs and that he had gone to Liverpool for "a day trip".

He claimed he had given his uniform to Simonini because he wanted it for "a fancy dress party".

Simonini also told the trial he knew nothing about drugs and believed he was returning north with a load of fake jeans.

He claimed he wore the prison uniform because Baillie told him to do so.