A Deemster has warned people can expect to go to prison if they are caught bringing drugs to the Isle of Man.

Kenny Stephen Garaty, 33, of Parliament Street, Ramsey, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis to the island and being concerned in the supply of it.

Prosecutor Rachel Braidwood said that on May 1, police intercepted a package at the Isle of Man Post Office sorting centre which was addressed to Garaty’s home address. Inside they found 499.8g of cannabis split into two packages, with a street value £9,996.

Garaty was arrested the next day and he told the police that he uses cannabis for his anxiety, buying a couple of grams at a time and denied all knowledge of the package being sent to him.

In his basis of plea, he said he ’hasn’t the means or the contacts to order such a quantity’ and said he had been approached by a drug dealer to get a package sent to him, where it would be collected from him. Garaty would have seen little, if any, financial gain from this.

Defence advocate David Clegg said his client’s ’vulnerability has been exploited’ by people higher up the food chain than himself. He said Garaty was in effect part of a small group of friends who buy and sell cannabis to each other in small amounts.

Mr Clegg said his client would benefit from probation as ’all prison would do is take him out of the community then put him back in after he’s lost his home and lost contact with his friends’.

Deemster Cook said in his time in the island, he has seen an increase in drugs being imported and that sentences have to act as a ’deterrent’ to people who may seek to import illegal substances and that they should expect to go to prison if caught.

Garaty was sentenced to 21 months in prison for the charge of being concerned in the production of cannabis to the island, with a concurrent sentence being applied for being concerned in supply.

The sentencing of Garaty also allowed Deemster Cook to layout the draft recommendations that he intends to use for sentencing in Class B drug cases as it is widely accepted that the current guidelines are out of date.

Moving away from the England and Wales system, which outlines larger amounts, Deemster Cook recommends a step system with the starting point for sentencing rising dependent on the weight of any drugs seized.

However, he said that his recommendations are not guidelines. If they were to become so, they would need to be applied by the Staff of Government (Appeals) division or the Privy Council.

While the case of Caldwell-Camp v R created guidelines for class A offences in the island, there has been no review of class B offences in at least 20 years.