Three men have admitted a plot to smuggle mobile phones and synthetic cannabis into Wandsworth Prison using drones after it ended in the death of a nursery worker.

Jamie Duggan, 30, Kye Hardy-King, 28, and Craig Kearney, 30, face sentencing at Kingston Crown Court next month.

They each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to convey prohibited items into a prison and conspiracy to supply psychoactive substances.

Met Police were called to reports of a drone hovering over Wandsworth jail in the early hours of August 9, 2016 and found Kearney driving away from the prison area at high speed.

He failed to stop, leading to a high-speed police chase towards Wandsworth Bridge Road where Kearney crashed into a lamppost.

Kearney sustained injuries and was left needing hospital treatment but his girlfriend, a nursery worker who had been in the front passenger seat, tragically died.

Kearney was consequently charged with causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment at the Old Bailey in February 2018.

The one-mile chase involving two marked police cars lasted just 69 seconds and Kearney reached average speeds of up to 91mph before crashing his Peugeot in Wandsworth Bridge Road.

A white four-propeller drone was found close to the scene of the crash, while 174g of a herbal synthetic cannabis-type substance was found in the car along with nine miniature mobile phones, four USB flash drives, cables and a memory card wrapped in cellophane.

An examination of the drone found it had been switched on at Hardy-King's home in Hounslow, west London, earlier that evening.

It had been flown for three minutes and 14 seconds and was 110m in the air for 13 seconds outside the prison before being brought back down.

Hardy-King was part of a gang who stole more than £400,000 of designer goods from the mansion of former England captain John Terry in Oxshott, Surrey, in 2017.

Duggan, a Wandsworth prison inmate, was the inside man who would receive the smuggled items and a message sent by Kearney said: "We gotta go n do duggy drone 2nite."

Duggan was jailed for 12 years in 2017 as part of a gang who blew up cash machines to steal hundreds of thousands of pounds in a 10-month spree.

Senior Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Paul Goddard said: "Drones are a scourge on our prisons and have contributed to blighting them with illegal substances, phones and other illicit items.

"This greatly impacts on the ability of authorities to be able to keep prisoners safe and stop criminal enterprises from working from the inside.

"The prosecution was able to show that Kearney, Duggan and Hardy-King were all working together in this conspiracy to get psychoactive substances and mobile phones into Wandsworth prison.

"The CPS has been working closely with the police in this complex case providing advice and guidance at various stages.

"These guilty pleas have brought an end to a long and thorough investigation by the police who have worked incredibly hard to piece together all the evidence needed for this successful prosecution.

"We take the dealing of substances and other illegal items inside prisons extremely seriously and will work with our criminal justice partners to prosecute those who break the law."

Hardy-King was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to one count of handling stolen goods after some of the property stolen in a series of raids on large luxury properties, including Terry's mansion, was found in his home.