A gangster who claimed he had turned his life around has been jailed for smuggling heroine and mobile phone SIM cards into prison.

Mikey Giwa, 23 of Lancing Road, Croydon, was sentenced to 30 months in prison at Woolwich Crown Court yesterday after he was caught trying to smuggling three mobile phone SIM cars and a wrap of heroin into Belmarsh prison on November 1 last year.

He denied the crimes but was found guilty of two charges of conveying articles into prison at Woolwich Crown Court in June.

Giwa was a prominent member of the notorious Don’t Say Nothing but he claimed he had turned his back on gang life and told the Croydon Guardian in May he was working with anti-knives organisation Lives Not Knives (LNK).

He said at the time: "The only way it will stop is for someone like me and a few of my friends to sit down with this young kids and say 'Right, we're older than you, we've been through what you are talking about, 'llow it.

"Go to school, go to college and get your education, don't be hurting people.

"I've moved on from being in a gang now, to trying to help people that are in gangs or people that want to get out of gangs.

When I got introduced to LNK I thought 'This is the answer.' "Croydon is not a bad place, let's put Croydon on the map as a good place to come to.

"If you want to, jump on my wave and help stop your little brother or sister from doing all these stupid things."