A woman today received a suspended sentence of 15 weeks for wasting police time.

Amy Burns, aged 40, of Harcroft Meadows in Douglas pleaded guilty to giving false evidence against two people.

Burns, who was a House of Keys candidate in 2015, claimed that one of them had sent various malicious messages to her in July 2020, and called an officer out to investigate the matter.

Forensic investigators later found that Burns had sent the messages to herself in order to incriminate the two people.

Defence advocate Stephen Woods told the court that Burns was ‘a lady with a positive character, which she loses today’ and also told the court of the ‘difficulties Mrs Burns was going through’ at the time of the offence.

Deemster Cook said: ‘What nobody should do is take the law into their own hands, which you did Mrs Burns.

‘This sort of behaviour must stop. To do what you did, you’re lucky you’re not in England where the maximum is life in prison.’

He continued: ‘Your references speak of a completely different person. There are things in your background that I say no-one would be able to cope with.’