A Douglas woman has been jailed after attempting to hide a stolen phone and scratching writing on a police cell wall.

Wilma Dotsey-Thompson, of Cushag Road, admitted obstructing police and property damage.

She was sentenced to two weeks in custody for each offence, to run consecutively by magistrates on Thursday.

But the offences put Dotsey-Thompson in breach of a suspended sentence previously imposed and magistrates activated 12 weeks of that sentence to bring the 41-year-old’s total jail time up to 16 weeks.

Prosecutor James Robinson told the court how Dotsey-Thompson was in Ali’s Electrical shop in Castle Street in Douglas on May 22, 2018.

Her boyfriend, who was dealt with separately, was seen stealing phones from the shop.

When police went to his address later Dotsey-Thompson was there and was seen kicking a mobile phone under a table.

The phone was confirmed as being stolen.

When interviewed she denied any involvement in the theft of the phones and said that she did not know the one she had kicked under the table was stolen, but could give no reason for kicking it.

On May 24, 2018, while in the custody suite at police headquarters, Dotsey-Thompson was seen on CCTV footage scratching writing on the wall of a cell in which she was being held, using a ring.

She was initially charged with handling stolen goods in relation to the phone which she pleaded not guilty to and a trial was due to take place. But on the day of the trial she agreed to plead guilty to a charge of obstructing police.

Defence advocate Paul Rodgers entered a basis of plea for his client reiterating that his client had not known the phone was stolen.

Mr Rodgers asked magistrates to follow the recommendation of a probation report which suggested a probation order with regular drug testing.

’This is a woman who since her teenage years has been taken over by drug use,’ said the advocate, who added that the probation report was the longest he had seen in his experience.

’Neither offence is at the high end of the spectrum for offences of that nature,’ he said.

’It has been 13 months since these offences and there has been no repetition. She is remorseful for what’s happened and is very scared of the possibility of being sent to prison.

’She is concerned it would lead her back into drug using. She’s aware that on the women’s section of the prison there are illicit substances. All of her offending is linked to drug use.’