A 32-year-old man has been handed a suspended sentence for a string of offences, including possessing heroin, property damage, and motoring offences.
Magistrates sentenced Jude Sneddon to 28 weeks’ custody, suspended for two years, and also made him the subject of a two-year suspended sentence supervision order.
He was also banned from driving for six months with an order to take an extended test at the end of the ban.
Prosecuting advocate Rebecca Cubbon told the court that, on November 28, 2021, Sneddon had been involved in a row with his ex-partner, outside an address at Hawarden Avenue in Douglas.
He broke her phone and threw a rock through a house window.
He was later charged with two counts of property damage.
On February 24, 2022, Sneddon was arrested at Millennium Close in Braddan, after police found him in possession of 0.1 grams of heroin and 0.5 grams of cannabis.
He was subsequently charged with two counts of possession of drugs.
On April 27, 2022, police saw Sneddon driving a Citroen C2 in Ramsey, despite having no driving licence or insurance.
He was later arrested and charged with both offences.
On August 10, 2022, Sneddon was seen driving a Volkswagen Golf by an off-duty police officer.
He was charged with driving while disqualified, having no vehicle licence, having no insurance, and failing to notify a change of vehicle ownership.
On September 20, 2022, Sneddon was arrested again, for driving with no vehicle licence or insurance.
Ms Cubbon said that there had been mixed pleas and a couple of the cases had gone to trial.
Defence advocate Stephen Wood told magistrates: ‘You will have gone through his record and seen that previous courts have imposed short periods of custody.
‘We’ve got a revolving door going on here. It’s costing us all a significant amount of money as taxpayers to deal with Mr Sneddon.’
Mr Wood said that supervision had not been tried in his client’s recent history and this may provide an opportunity to do so.
The advocate said that Sneddon, who lives at Heather Crescent in Pulrose, had been open and frank, himself saying of the heroin offence: ‘It’s a s*it life. I’ve watched my mum and dad go down that road. It was stupid of me to do it.’
Mr Wood continued, saying that Sneddon had lost a close friend to drug overdose in 2022 and still had unresolved grief issues.
The advocate said that his client used to sell cars but now wanted to utilise his other skills, as a roofer, and that there would be good opportunities for him in that field.
‘I’ve been waiting 12 months for my roof to be done,’ said Mr Wood.
The advocate said that Sneddon had spent three weeks on remand after he failed to attend for a probation appointment.
Magistrates sentenced the defendant to 16 weeks custody for the property damage offences and 12 weeks for the disqualified driving offence, to run consecutively. but suspended for two years.
He was fined £150 for possessing heroin and £100 for possessing cannabis, and ordered to pay compensation of £145 for the damaged window and £150 for the phone.
He will pay all amounts at a rate of £10 per week.
No separate penalties were made for the other motoring offences.