This is the face of a heroin addict who has been jailed for 10 and a half years for smuggling two kilos of cocaine into the island.

The drugs, valued at more than £200,000, were found hidden in a secret compartment of a Volkswagen Passat brought over from Liverpool on the ferry in May this year.

Russell Armit Nelson Collins, 57, of Sanquahar in Dumfries and Galloway, admitted charges of production of a class A drug to the island and possession of it with intent to supply.

His elderly father had travelled from Scotland to support his son and see him jailed - and the court was told Collins may well spend the rest of his parents’ lives in jail.

The court heard that Collins had been a hopeless drug addict who was paid in heroin for trafficking the cocaine to the island - and did it to clear a £3,000 drug debt.

Prosecutor Roger Kane told the court that Collins got off the ferry from Liverpool at 9.50am on May 22.

Police searched the VW and found a secret compartment between the boot and the rear seat.

Hidden inside were two packages containing between them over 2kg of cocaine, with a street value of more than £200,000.

When interviewed by police, Collins handed in a prepared statement saying he was asked to collect a car in Liverpool and take it to the Isle of Man.

He said he was given £500 but had to pay for the journey and car insurance out of that.

When charged, he told police: ’You are making a big mistake. I didn’t know anything about it.’

His defence advocate Louise Cooil said his client had had an ’overwhelming heroin addiction’ - and this was the ’very essence of how drug use can blight lives in so many ways’.

She said that he had been ’easy prey’ for those who wished to import drugs to the island.

But she said that following his remand in custody he was in much better health, having come off drugs by going ’cold turkey’.

’He has done it the hard way,’ she said.

Jailing him for 10 years and six months, Deemster Alastair Montgomerie said drugs bring misery and suffering to users, their families and whole communities alike. He told him: ’That would have happened in your case if you had not been intercepted by the authorities.

’Had it been, the island would have been awash.

’You have personal knowledge of the damage inflicted on families by drugs.

’Your need to feed you addiction overtook any consideration of harm.’

Collins will serve his prison term in a Scottish jail after requesting a transfer.

Following his release he will be banned from visiting the Isle of Man for a period of five years.