A woman who was jailed after breaching an exclusion order has had her conviction and ban quashed on appeal.

Mica Elizabeth Oakes was jailed for four months by magistrates at Douglas Courthouse after admitting breaching an exclusion order by being in the Isle of Man.

However, Miss Oakes and her advocate Paul Rodgers have successfully appealed against that decision to Judge of Appeal Jeremy Storey QC.

Miss Oakes told magistrates that she had applied for a returning residents’ certificate, which was granted, before she travelled to the island on July 10.

In December 2016 Oakes was sentenced to a conditional discharge and also handed a five-year exclusion order, banning her from entering the Isle of Man.

Despite this, prosecutor James Robinson told the court that information was received on July 30 that Oakes was in the Isle of Man.

However, Justice Storey agreed with Miss Oakes and Mr Rodgers that in 2016 when that order was set down, she was a resident in the island and therefore magistrates did not have the power to exclude her.

Justice Storey said: ’Upon the court being satisfied that the appellant was ordinarily resident when the offences occurred within the meaning of section 2(2)(a) of the 1998 Act so that the magistrates were not empowered to impose the exclusion order for the offences on December 15 2016.’

He ruled that her exclusion order from the island be overturned and her subsequent conviction for breaching that exclusion order also be overturned.

Miss Oakes is therefore free to continue living and working in the island.