A convict in Kazakhstan has been caught smuggling a phone into prison at the start of his sentence by poking it up his bottom.

Prison guards of the Penitentiary System Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs check the inmate upon entry to the AK-159/20 colony in the Kazakh region of Karaganda.

The 28-year-old convict was searched along with other newly-arrived prisoners, and guards found there was an unidentified object in his rectum during an X-ray that turned out to be a mobile phone.

According to local media, the man was trying to conceal a Nokia phone with an active SIM card.

After the banned device was discovered up the man’s back passage, he voluntarily handed it over to prison guards.

Reports did not mention what the prisoner was convicted of or how long his sentence is.

It is also unclear if he faces additional punishment for trying to smuggle in the phone.