Receiving a package containing just under four kilograms of cannabis has resulted in a 46-year-old man receiving a near three-year jail sentence.

Christopher Peter Corkill was arrested after accepting the package, which had somebody else’s name on it, on July 21.

The court heard that the parcel was believed to be suspicious by a courier, who contacted the police. After confirming it contained cannabis, officers allowed it to be delivered to Corkill at his address on Glashen Terrace, Ballasalla.

Prosecutor James Robinson said that officers then went to enter the house at 11pm but he let them in and said the package had nothing to do with the other person in the house.

Inside the house, officers found 15 packages containing 3,776 grams of cannabis, worth £73,530 and a separate package of 235.8 grams, with a street value of £4,716. The total figure given to the court was 3,916 grams, with a street value of £78,246.

A further 16.3 grams of cannabis was later found in the house.

Originally Corkill said he didn’t know anything about the package, but when he opened it and saw it contained cannabis he decided to keep it since he smokes cannabis.

However, Deemster Graeme Cook labelled that story as ‘nonsense’.

Defence advocate Stephen Wood said his client had been ‘pragmatic’ by pleading guilty at the first opportunity and by rejecting to have social or probation reports written ahead of sentencing had ‘saved the taxpayer money’.

Mr Wood also revealed his client was given an ultimatum of paying an unnamed person £10,000, facing a credible threat of physical violence or receiving the package. He said that Corkill ‘chose the latter and accepted the consequences’.

Deemster Cook remarked that Corkill has an ‘appalling record’ for drugs offences and told him ‘you seem not to learn your lesson’. He also noted that the courts had no evidence that what he had said about facing threats over the £10,000 was true.

Corkill was sentenced to 34 months in prison for being concerned in the production (importation) of cannabis, possession of the drug, and possession with intent to supply.

Deemster Cook added an extra 20 days to his sentence, to run consecutively, as Corkill was in breach of an earlier conviction’s expiry date.