A Liverpudlian who imported £80,000 worth of cannabis to the island has been jailed for 28 months.

Ian Alexander Broadbent, 55, of Sefton Road, Bootle, Liverpool, was sentenced by Deemster Graeme Cook on Friday.

Prosecutor Roger Kane told the court that on April 23, Broadbent arrived in the island, via the ferry, in a black Audi, before going to check into a hotel on Douglas Prom.

Police later arrived at the hotel and arrested Broadbent, seizing his car. An initial search found 2kg of cannabis hidden in the car, with a value of £40,000. A second search also revealed more packages, totalling a further 2kg, giving a total value of £80,000.

Mr Kane said that Broadbent had been told to bring the car to the island in order to clear a large debt he had. He added that Broadbent didn’t put the drugs in the car, nor was he aware where in the car the drugs were hidden.

Broadbent refused to name those who had sent him.

Defence advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge said Broadbent had fallen on hard times and owed a significant amount of money. She said he was ‘simply another case’ of a person being caught importing someone else’s drugs.

This drew Deemster Cook to say Broadbent was ‘lucky’ it wasn’t Class A drugs the car was packed with and issued a warning to drug smugglers that this case was ‘another classic example of how good police dogs are’.

Deemster Cook went on to say: ‘Unscrupulous suppliers don’t think about people like Mr Broadbent, they just use them as mules.’

Responding, Miss Dodge said this mistake had cost Broadbent his family life and his business, but that he was already working within the prison and had made a ‘positive impression’.

She added that Broadbent has said he would welcome an opportunity to visit schools to tell students where he went wrong and to warn them not to follow his mistakes.

Deemster Cook sentenced Broadbent to 28 months, with a five-year exclusion order banning him from the island starting the day he is released.