A mother-of-three who used her bra to sneak evidence out of a house during a police drugs bust, has escaped an immediate jail sentence.

Beverley Nicholson, 41, grabbed a holdall at her Dover home and then hid drugs in her bra, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

But as she left her home in Bindon Blood Road, undercover detectives involved in Operation Glimmer arrested her.

The court heard that inside the bag, officers found a safe containing drugs, jewellery and £3,500.

Nicholson was given a 51-week jail sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid social work.

She had pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice after the police swoop in April.

Nicholson’s husband Stuart was jailed for five and a half years at a hearing last month after admitting conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Prosecutor James Bilsand said officers found a plastic bag, two small straws and traces of cocaine hidden inside her bra.

She told officers she had received a text message saying police were searching a friend’s house.

Nicholson said she had been told “to get rid of everything” and didn’t know what was in the safe.

Camilla Da Silva, defending, said Nicholson knew her husband took drugs but had not realised he was involved in supplying cocaine and crack.

When she had received the text message she panicked and took the holdall and the drugs to get any evidence out of her home.

Ms Da Silva added that Nicholson was having problems with her marriage and since her husband’s jailing had decided to “sever all ties with him.”

“She does not approve of drugs and she never had a lavish lifestyle, living as she did with her three children in a housing association house,” she added.

In a separate case, Tania Graham, 23, of Tower Hamlets Road, Dover, was given a suspended jail sentence for supplying drugs to undercover officers.

Graham, was arrested by officers from Operation Glimmer delivering cocaine from The Old Endeavour Pub in Dover.

She was given a 51-week sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.