A man who sparked a six-and-a-half hour siege in Port St Mary has been put on probation for 18 months.

Aidan Christopher Bainton threatened to start a fire at his home which resulted in neighbours in Victoria Road being evacuated.

The 30-year-old denied wasting police time but was found guilty after a trial in summary court.

High Bailiff Jayne Hughes also ordered him to pay £3,000 compensation to the Department of Home Affairs and £800 prosecution costs due to the case going to trial.

We previously reported that Bainton made 999 calls to police on June 13, relating to a historical civil matter.

He then made threats to harm himself resulting in police attending his home in Port St Mary.

After officers arrived, Bainton held a Jerry can, which was marked as containing petrol, and sparked a lighter six times, saying: ‘If I have any thought you will enter, this is going everywhere.’

Neighbours were evacuated and police negotiators and the fire service attended the scene.

The road was closed, with a siege said to have lasted six-and-a-half hours before police forced entry to the property.

Bainton was said to have been intoxicated at the time.

The Jerry can was later found to not have contained petrol.

Defence advocate Paul Glover said that his client had been on remand for 10 weeks, the equivalent of a 20-week sentence.

Mr Glover urged the court to follow the recommendation of a probation report which suggested a probation order as the most appropriate sentence.

Bainton was jailed in 2019 for assault causing actual bodily harm and common assault, offences which were committed in 2014.

He went on the run to Mexico while he was awaiting trial for those offences, before returning to the island in August 2019.

High Bailiff Mrs Hughes said that the maximum sentence for the offence of wasting police time is six months, and that she had taken into account Bainton’s time on remand.

She told Bainton: ‘You caused the evacuation of properties in the middle of the night, it must have been extremely frightening.

‘They were deliberate and intentional actions, arising because of your grudge with the police, because they didn’t act in the way you wanted them to over an alleged theft that had been investigated and dealt with.’

Bainton was ordered to pay the compensation and costs at a rate of £20 per week.