A “rising star” prison governor has been jailed for nine years after having a relationship with a Liverpool drug gang boss, according to the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU).

Kerri Pegg, 42, swapped her Honda Jazz for a £12,000 Mercedes C class car, paid for by 34 kilos of amphetamines by Anthony Saunderson, a major organised crime boss, who is now serving 35 years behind bars.

Divorcee Pegg, described in court as “petite, blonde and bubbly”, signed off on temporary release for Saunderson while she was a governor at HMP Kirkham, Lancashire.

When anti-corruption police raided Pegg’s apartment they found expensive jewellery and designer clothes, along with size 10 Hugo Boss slip-ons and a toothbrush with Saunderson’s DNA.

Known to criminal associates as “Jesse Pinkman”, the drug dealer in Breaking Bad, or “James Gandolfini”, the actor who played lothario mafia boss Tony Soprano in the eponymous TV series, even members of his gang grumbled that their boss was spending too much time with Pegg, neglecting his wife and “work”.

Pegg, a keen gym-goer inside jail, was seen as a “rising star” in the Prison Service, climbing the career ladder from graduate entrant to prison governor in six years, along the way also having breast enhancement surgery.

During her trial at Preston Crown Court, it emerged that Saunderson had developed and delivered a programme titled BADD (Beating Alcohol and Drug Dependency) for inmates at several jails while at the time being a major drug dealer, running an amphetamines factory.

Pegg claimed her contact with Saunderson was due to his involvement in the BADD programme.

Pegg was convicted of two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of possession of criminal property following a three-week trial last month.

Phil Copple, chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, said: “The criminal misconduct in this case lets down the public we serve as well as the vast majority of honest and hardworking prison staff, but it also demonstrates our determination to take robust action against those who fail to achieve proper professional standards.”

The court heard Pegg, originally from Bramhall, Stockport, had worked in the Probation Service for eight years.

Married at 26 and divorced four years later after her husband’s building and renovations firm went bust, she switched to the Prison Service for a new challenge.

Pegg joined in 2012 as a graduate entrant, working at prisons including Risley, Liverpool and Styal, and by April 2018 she was a governor at HMP Kirkham, where Saunderson was reaching the end of a 10-year sentence for drugs offences.

He had been one of Merseyside’s most wanted fugitives for his part in importing £19 million of cocaine in shipments of corned beef from Argentina.

From the start of her time at the jail there were concerns about Pegg being inappropriately close to Saunderson, with the two often being in her office with the door closed.

She told jurors there were “cultural issues” at the jail and clashed with bosses over her “progressive” and “hands-on” open-door policy with prisoners.

In October 2018, Saunderson put in a release on temporary licence (ROTL) request which Pegg signed off, though she did not have the authority to do so.

Saunderson was released from Kirkham in May 2019 and within two months, while still on licence, was involved in another massive drug conspiracy.

Pegg’s trial heard he continued contact with prisons in the BADD programme and was also still close to Pegg, who was at the time the regional official co-ordinating drug strategy in six prisons in the North West.

Saunderson and his gang were producing and supplying drugs on an industrial scale from a lab at a premises on the England/Wales border and a storage unit in Aintree, Merseyside.

He was jailed for 35 years at Liverpool Crown Court in August 2022 after law enforcement agencies cracked the Encrochat system – the phone network used by serious organised criminals.

It revealed Saunderson’s drug dealing – and his relationship with Pegg.

When police raided her apartment in Orrell, Wigan, in November 2020, the Mercedes paid for by Saunderson in drugs was parked outside.

They discovered designer clothes, handbags and jewellery, and found Pegg living way beyond her means, buying Jimmy Choo shoes and Chanel necklaces.

Detectives discovered that despite her £3,000 a month income, Pegg was deep in debt and had not declared three County Court judgments which amounted to misconduct, as debts make officials vulnerable to corruption.

Her four credit cards were “maxed out” and she had 6p in her savings account.

Detectives also found the toothbrush and a pair of Hugo Boss flip flops both carrying Saunderson’s DNA.

Andrew Alty, defending, in his closing speech to the jury, claimed Pegg had been “green and stupid”, a naive and gullible person who was manipulated by Saunderson.

Pegg tearfully told jurors she had been “incredibly stupid” but did not think she had done anything wrong.

Barbara-Louise Webster, prosecuting, said Pegg had a promising future, but added: “Anthony Saunderson was her downfall.”

After her arrest and resignation from the Prison Service, Pegg became the operations manager for poverty and homeless charity The Brick, based in Wigan.

The charity was aware of her being under investigation but she kept her job with “substantial restrictions”.

Tarryn McCaffrey, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Pegg’s actions in becoming involved with a prisoner who had committed serious drug offences portrayed a total lack of integrity or judgment.

“She displayed a shocking lack of professionalism in her role, overriding rules around Saunderson’s temporary release and ignoring her obligations to declare personal debts.”

Detective Inspector Brian Morley, from the NWROCU’s Prison Intelligence Unit, said: “Kerri Pegg was a senior figure within the Prison Service, a public servant expected to behave to the highest standards but this was serious misconduct on her part and greatly undermines the trust given to prison staff and order in a prison.”