A young mother convicted of ecstasy and cannabis offences has had a jail term increased on appeal.

Chloe Nelson lost her appeal against her conviction last November.

And she has seen her jail term extended from three years and 11 months to four years and eight months after the Attorney General’s chambers appealed her ’unduly lenient’ sentence.

Nelson, 23, of Kensington Road, Douglas, was convicted in June last year following a five-day trial of two offences of being concerned in the production of class A ecstasy and class B cannabis and two offences of attempted possession of class A and class B drugs with intent to supply.

The offence was committed in July 2018 when the prosecution said Nelson had agreed to take delivery of a parcel containing a microwave oven with controlled drugs hidden inside.

In total there were 508 ecstasy tablets worth £5,080 to £7,620 and 230.8g of cannabis bush worth £4,616.

At her trial, she claimed she had no knowledge that when the parcel was delivered it was a microwave oven containing controlled drugs. She said she believed that the parcel contained a present for her daughter of a doll and a cup.

The Attorney General chambers sought an appeal against the 47 month sentence, saying it created ’widespread concern and undermine public confidence’.

Too much weight had been attached to the intimidation found to exist and to rights of the defendant’s children, it argued.

At sentencing the Deemster took the view that given the jury’s questions and also the appearance of some of the jurors at the time the verdicts were delivered that they considered there was some degree of intimidation.

Rachael Braidwood, for the Attorney General’s chambers, argued that the starting point of 7¼ years’ custody was too low and ought to have been ’closer to eight years’ to reflect the offending as it related to two types of drugs.

She pointed out it was never the defendant’s case that she had been threatened into taking the parcel.

Nelson said she had refused to take the parcel but that it was sent anyway and that, following its delivery, she intended to return it to the post office. ’Any intimidation was therefore slight’, said Miss Braidwood.

The appeal court quashed Nelson’s 47 months sentence, judging it to be ’unduly lenient and outside the norm of sentencing generally applied by the Isle of Man Courts in cases of drug importation by young mothers’.

But they reduced her sentence from a possible 62 months to 56, saying that moving Nelson from being a short-term to a long-term detainee needed extra compassion.