A former telecoms senior manager has spoken of his relief after he was acquitted of importing a package of cannabis from Amsterdam.

Danny Bakhshi, 50, who was suspended from his £200,000-a-year job as chief financial officer for Manx Telecom in August, says he is now looking forward to rebuilding his life back in the UK with his wife and family - and to restoring his damaged reputation.

He told iomtoday: ’My reputation has taken a big knock. It’s been a very stressful time for me, my wife and my family. I can now get my life back together.’

Following a trial at the magistrates court in Douglas on Tuesday last week, Mr Bakhshi was found not guilty of a charge of being unlawfully concerned in the production of a class B substance.

He has criticised the ’sloppy’ police investigation and the presumption of guilt that he says was taken against him from the outset.

And he has speculated that the parcel may have been sent deliberately to him by somebody bearing a grudge who wanted to damage his career.

Mr Bakhshi’s nightmare began on July 24 this year. He had been to the UK for the birth of his first grandchild and had returned to the island to attend a board meeting at Manx Telecom.

Back home in his apartment on Shore Road, Gansey, there was a knock at the door at 8pm. It was the police who arrested him on suspicion of a drugs importation offence.

He was told a white parcel containing 9.8g of cannabis bush valued at £200, posted from Amsterdam to a Dr Fenwick at his address, had been intercepted at the sorting office. His iPads, mobile and laptop were confiscated.

Father-of-four Mr Bakhshi said: ’I can’t tell you how shocked I was. The first 15 to 20 minutes when the police began searching the apartment were very traumatic. I was knocked for six.

’When they arrested me the police confiscated my mobile. I wasn’t able to call my wife straight away. It was just horrendous. The worst thing was the presumption of guilt.’

He said he was put in the cells for three hours and finally interviewed, cold, hungry and stressed, at midnight where he declined to answer any of the police’s questions - a stance from which an adverse inference was drawn at his trial.

’I was just worried I would get trapped and end up digging a hole for myself,’ he said.

He was suspended on full pay from his job about a week later.

As Manx Telecom is a limited company, an announcement had to be made on the Stock Exchange and the story was picked up by Reuters, the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times. ’It went pretty much global,’ Mr Bakhshi said.

At the beginning on October, he parted company with Manx Telecom, which he had joined in January 2016 after two years as executive director of Virgin Media and before that chief financial officer for Vodafone’s global enterprise business.

He has not worked since.

Mr Bakhshi said he had really enjoyed his time with MT. ’It involved a lot of challenges. We were really beginning to turn things round. We spent over £10m on updating systems and processes. There was a redundancy and cultural change programme.’

He hit out at what he believes was a ’sloppy’ police investigation. It became apparent, he claims, that officers had interviewed only one other resident in the flats, and checks weren’t made with his bank accounts that would prove no transaction had been made.

Even his confiscated iPads, mobile and laptop had not been checked, he maintains.

He said he wasn’t initially confident at his trial that he would be acquitted.

’I knew without doubt I was innocent but throughout the process there was this presumption of guilt.

’There was no direct evidence linking me to the package, no forensic evidence. I had hoped common sense would prevail.

’But as the trial proceeded it became apparent there was a lack of proper investigation and I began to feel a bit more confident that I would have to be found not guilty. Otherwise, anyone could send something like that to anybody and get them in serious trouble.’

During the trial, he was asked to speculate on why the parcel had been sent to the Shore Road address.

He set out three possibilities - it was just a mistake and it had been sent to the wrong address; it had been sent to the right address but the intended recipient had planned to intercept it in the foyer; or it had been deliberately sent by someone bearing a grudge.

’I think a disgruntled employee or ex-employee bearing a grudge is possibly to blame for the package being sent to my address,’ he said.

Now back living in Wokingham, Berkshire, with his wife Aroosah and children, he says he will never return to the Isle of Man.

’It’s a beautiful island but I absolutely won’t be coming back. The presumption of guilt is really something of a challenge for the island.

’I think the police investigation was sloppy and at worse disingenuous. I was disappointed at the level of support I received from Manx Telecom.’

He added: ’I want to express my thanks to my wife for her love and support and thanks also to Roger Kane, my excellent lawyer, who helped with a level head and expert advice throughout.’

Isle of Man Constabulary was invited to provide a comment.