A businessman who gave false details when arriving in the island by private jet has been jailed for 10 weeks.

Richard Malcolm Powell, aged 59, of Gloucester Road, Bristol, was also fined a total of £2,725 for breaching the Emergency Powers Act, along with driving offences and thefts dating back nearly six years.

Powell had pleaded guilty on March 27 to providing false details to officers at the airport when he arrived on a private jet on March 20.

Last week he appeared for sentencing before Deputy High Bailiff Chris Arrowsmith via video link from the prison.

Upon arriving in the island by private jet on March 20, Powell was informed he was required to provide his name, date of birth and place of residence.

However, he provided a fake name ’Richard Howell’ as well as a false date of birth, address and phone number.

After concerns were raised by officials at the airport, the information was handed to police who, on Thursday, March 26, found him at Rivendell Cottage, a holiday cottage on Lhergy Cripperty in Union Mills.

Defence advocate Paul Rodgers said that Powell had been on a 24-hour lockdown for the first two weeks he has been on remand and for over 23 hours a day since then.

He said Powell is an entrepreneur who has made a significant contribution to the island for a number of years’. Powell also pays into the island’s top tax bracket.

Mr Rodgers added that being in trouble and sent to a borstal at a young age had left a ’profound impact on his life’ but that Powell had turned himself around in the early 2000s. This included visiting a monastery and seeing a psychologist.

Since then, Powell has run several business and carried out charity work both in the Isle of Man and the UK, including running the Mannifest music festival which raised money for Manx charities.

Mr Rodgers referred to a probation report which stated Powell had provided the incorrect details in order to protect his friend on whose plane he travelled to the island. He said this was a ’momentarily bad decision’.

He added that, since arriving in the island, before his arrest, Powell had remained at the cottage and ’took it upon himself to protect himself and others’.

Powell said he had wanted to be close to his family, including his wife and son who live in the island, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Powell was previously found guilty in his absence for the theft of a fire extinguisher, a fire bucket and confectionery from the Wessex garage in Douglas, as well as driving without insurance or a licence in October 2014.

As he had not appeared before the court and fines were outstanding, a warrant was issued by the court after he was found guilty for those offences in 2015.

In relation to the charges from 2014, Mr Rodgers said that Powell had been informed of the wrong date at the time and that with the length of time that has passed since, he was given ’erroneous’ advice from a different advocate to ’let sleeping dogs lie’.

He added that Powell was prepared to pay any fines outstanding and intends to remain in the island while the lockdown continues.

When questioned by Deputy High Bailiff Chris Arrowsmith, Mr Rodgers confirmed that Powell has been ’back and forth’ to the island since being found guilty of the previous offences.

Before sentencing him, Mr Arrowsmith said it was the ’cause of some surprise and concern that the earlier matters hadn’t been dealt with until today’.

If Powell hadn’t provided false details, then it may not have come to light.

Mr Arrowsmith said the regulations Powell breached are in place to protect Manx residents.

He added: ’His rationale was two-fold - to protect the pilot, who is unnamed, but mostly to avoid detection by the authorities.’

Powell was sentenced to six weeks’ custody for providing false details and four weeks’ custody for stealing the fire equipment.

He was fined £1,000 and banned from driving for three months for having no insurance or a licence at the time of the 2014 incident and fined £800 for breaking his bail, initially set at £1,000 for failing to appear in 2015.

Powell was also ordered to pay £925 in court costs.

Powell had already served more than eight weeks on remand.