Prison officer from Doncaster jailed over relationship with ‘Latvian Pablo Escobar’
Jahvine Kwamba was working at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire when she began a relationship with prisoner Roberts Sokolovs
A prison officer who had an inappropriate relationship with a drug dealer who styled himself as the “Latvian Pablo Escobar” has been jailed for eight months.
Jahvine Kwamba, who was working at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire when she began a relationship with prisoner Roberts Sokolovs, initiated contact with him 1,367 times while he was at the category C prison between February 24 and June 3 2024, Leicester Crown Court heard.
Sokolovs was imprisoned for drug-related matters in 2022 due to his involvement in a county lines drug ring called the Jimmy Line, between Skelmersdale in Lancashire and Lincoln.
Kwamba, 21, from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, was arrested in July 2024 and previously pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office.
At a sentencing hearing in Leicester on Friday, prosecution counsel Rawaid Javed said sexually explicit photographs and messages were sent between the pair on Snapchat after Sokolovs was sent to an immigration removal centre at Gatwick Airport in June 2024.
Because he was deported to Latvia in November that year, Sokolovs was never interviewed about his relationship with Kwamba.
While at HMP Fosse Way, there were 5,441 contacts with each other on Snapchat, and 4,211 contacts between them while Sokolovs was at the removal centre.
Kwamba denies there was any physical sexual contact between the pair, which the prosecution is “sceptical” about, the court heard.
Kwamba also received five payments from Sokolovs’s mother Zita Sokolova, 53, totalling £1,495 between March 18 and July 2 2024, while 18 payments totalling £4,665 were sent to her in the same period by his 20-year-old sister Venera Sokolova.
Kwamba sent seven payments, totalling £660, to his sister between March 27 and July 1 2024.
Mr Javed said there were “no obvious patterns” to the transactions, and when Kwamba first received a payment of £500 from Zita Sokolova in March 2024, she spent it on food and clothing and did not transfer it.
Sam Ponniah, defending Kwamba, who was 19 at the time of the offences, said she had shown “significant levels of naivety and immaturity” and had been “well in over her head” when she was put in charge of 64 prisoners despite being a prison officer for around four months.
He said: “She speaks about the fact when she first got this job, being away from home, she was in an area she was unfamiliar with and living by herself.
“She has real and substantiated remorse for her actions, it is clear from her letter that one of the things that weighs heavily on her is ruining a job she thought she was doing well at… she knows she has thrown that all away.”
Mr Ponniah said Kwamba now works at a car rental company.
The hearing was told Venera Sokolova was in contact with her brother while he was in prison 191 times, while his mother was in contact with him 33 times.
Sokolovs’s mother and sister, both from Skelmersdale, previously pleaded guilty to transmitting or causing the transmission of an image by electronic communications from inside HMP Fosse Way between February 24 and June 3 2024.
In a voluntary police interview in November 2024, Zita Sokolova said she would send her son money while he was in prison, could not say when she found out Kwamba was a prison officer, and said her son told her Kwamba was going to “help him”.
In her interview the same day, Venera Sokolova said she knew Kwamba to be her brother’s girlfriend but did not know she was a prison officer and was asked to contact her by her brother.
Zita Sokolova was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for one year and ordered to pay £400 costs.
Venera Sokolova was given a 12-month community order with a requirement to attend 15 probation appointments.
Defending the Sokolovas, Jonathan Dunne said Zita Sokolova, a mother-of-six, came to the UK in 2006 and works in a factory making cables.
Of Venera Sokolova, who joined her mother in the UK when she was three, Mr Dunne said she had to give up her job as a dinner lady when she was pregnant with her young son.
Mr Dunne said: “When women of good character come before the courts, there is invariably a man behind it. We know Roberts had access to a mobile phone in prison.
“They maintain they did not realise (Kwamba) was a prison officer. They never met her, they just thought she was his girlfriend.
“If one looks at the reality, (Roberts Sokolovs) is a county lines drug dealer and the women are being told to send money in.
“It won’t be the first time women have done things men have asked them to do out of a sense of loyalty, a sense of fear.”
Addressing all three defendants in the dock, Judge Timothy Spencer KC said: “This case strikes at the heart of any functioning criminal justice system, including a functioning prison system, where those running a prison can have some confidence that discipline and good order is maintained and not continually undermined.
“You, in your different ways, have all contributed to the undermining of that system of law and order and each of you have struck at the heart of the maintenance of law and order in this country.”
Sentencing Kwamba, who covered her face as she entered the court building to avoid reporters, the judge said she had exposed herself to risk of blackmail and coercion.
He said: “You had extensive training, it was drummed into you the importance of high standards, professional contact and maintaining integrity and not exposing yourself in the way a relationship with a prisoner would.
“You knew from the start that any money at all, let alone over £6,000, was exposing you to the same sort of risk I identified and that the transfer of any amount was utterly wrong.”
The judge said he suspected Kwamba was “pretty lonely and vulnerable”, adding: “You were easy prey and easy pickings for Roberts, who obviously decided he could exploit you.
“It’s implicit that you were of good character, not just in a sense of having no convictions but you did well in this job and it is a tragedy you have thrown it all away.
“Your life has been turned upside down, your life has been on hold for two years. Your prospects, if not for this case, would have been promising.
“This has been hanging over you for a long time.”
Sending Kwamba, who attended court with a large black holdall, down to the cells, Judge Spencer said to the Sokolovas: “If you ever had any illusions about how serious this is, those illusions have been dispelled today.
“What you did was extremely serious. Allowing illicit phone contact with a prisoner is fundamentally wrong.
“You must have known you were contributing to that but you will both go home tonight.
“You could not have come closer to following (Kwamba) through the door.”
He added: “You, Zita, are obviously older, you should have known better.
“Venera, you were very young at the time, I think you have done a lot of growing up since your arrest and I don’t want to hamper your life chances.
“Regard this as a chance, both of you, don’t waste it and don’t come anywhere near the criminal justice system again.”