A man who scammed TT fans out of £31,155 for a campsite bookings he then didn’t provide has been sentenced to 20 months, suspended for two years.

Former island resident Ian Moffitt was charged with nine counts of fraud by false representation.

He appeared in court on Friday to be sentenced.

In 2019, police issued an alert over campsite bookings made through a company called Evolution Camping which had advertised accommodation at a camping area on Blackberry Lane in Douglas.

The offences were committed during May and June 2018 and Mr Moffitt was the sole director of the company at this time.

The 37-year-old pleaded guilty and was on bail when he appeared in court on Friday.

On May 2018 David Quirk MHK confirmed the company did not have permission to use the site but Evolution Camping continued charging for the facility.

Since then, many complainants have come forward, only one of which has been compensated because they used an American Express credit card.

When handing down his sentence, Deemster Cook said: ’You buried your head in the sand. You know you should not have done that, you should have told them.

’You are highly culpable and this was an abuse of your responsibility to the public.’

Mr Moffitt, who now lives in Randalstown, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was ordered by the court to pay £12,245.38 compensation by 4pm that day, otherwise he would face 18 months imprisonment.

He was sentenced to 20 months with a suspension of two years, concurrent, with no supervision.