A 23-year-old Liverpool man who tried to take more than £3,000 of criminal cash off the island has been given a probation order and banned from returning for five years, Manx Radio reported.
Louis Moran was stopped at the Sea Terminal in Douglas on Tuesday 29 September, the Court of General Gaol Delivery, the island’s higher criminal court, heard.
According to Manx Radio, Moran had arrived from Liverpool at about 22:00 the previous evening and was trying to board the next morning’s sailing to Heysham when security selected him for a search.
He told staff he had been visiting his aunt but was unable to say where she lived, the court heard. The search found an envelope containing £3,270 hidden in his trousers. He was also carrying 0.89g of cannabis.
Manx Radio reported that Moran said to officers at the time: “[you] wouldn’t go to jail for three grand would you?”
Deemster Graeme Cook sentenced him to a six-month probation order, to be supervised by officials in Liverpool, and imposed a five-year exclusion order barring him from the island.
The cash and cannabis were seized, and Moran was ordered to pay £125 in costs.
