A couple who have returned home after spending two weeks in quarantine have delivered a damning verdict on the government’s repatriation policy.

And their stinging criticism will make particularly uncomfortable reading for the administration given the senior role Charles Coué played in the Manx civil service until his retirement 18 months ago.

Mr Coué worked for the island’s Customs and Excise division for 40 years, the last six and a half of those as the collector responsible for bringing in millions of pounds of VAT and duty revenue needed to fund public services.

But in a hard-hitting letter to the Chief Minister, he and his wife Julia said: ’We will not be able to forgive many of this island’s elected representatives for making some of the decisions that ultimately made us feel abandoned - especially for their comments and policies that appeared to de-humanise and criminalise us.’

The couple, who live in Ramsey, said the returning residents were not trusted to self-quarantine at home and were afforded fewer rights and less access to support than prisoners.

They had left the island on December 28 for what was supposed to be a once in a lifetime holiday to celebrate their retirement - a western circumnavigation of the world on board Arcadia with P&O Cruises. By the time the World Health Organisation had classed coronavirus as a global pandemic, they had departed Freemantle, Australia, on the homeward leg of their journey.

And when the Isle of Man announced the border would be closed they were in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

The Coués arrived at Southampton on April 12 and got a place on the first repatriation sailing three days later and were then taken by coach, under police escort, to the Comis Hotel to begin their 14-day quarantine.

In their letter to Chief Minister Howard Quayle, they wrote: ’Both during and since our incarceration we listened to the daily government briefings and were absolutely stunned to hear that the person you say had spoken to described themselves as being happy with the whole quarantine process.

’Had you or someone from government bothered to phone and ask how we were doing and enquire as to our well-being during our two-week quarantine you/they would have heard a dramatically different story.’

The couple said they had been left feeling abandoned by the government, with no clear advice about who to contact while they were at sea and worried about finding somewhere safe to stay once back in the UK.

They said they had no choice but to pay £1,750 on the spot to board the ferry home and go through the potential embarrassment of having a medical check in front of everyone.

Arriving at Douglas, they said they were escorted to the Comis in a motorcade ’befitting a drug lord being whisked into court’.

’Police motorcycle outriders halted traffic and a police SUV tailed us making sure we didn’t do a runner.

’This was so demeaning, unnecessary and over the top,’ they said.

They said the security guards at the Comis looked at them ’as if we were dirty, virus-ridden hooligans’.

The returnees spent 23 hours a day in their respective rooms, with a security alarm on the door, and were supervised by security on the walk down to do their daily exercise.

A bag of home comforts packed by their daughter was searched.

The couple said they had a letter from P&O confirming they were Covid-free at Southampton and could have picked up their car at the docks, driven straight to the ferry and quarantined themselves at home for two weeks.

’But you didn’t let us do that, you wouldn’t look at individual cases, you made us exiles and, in our view, left us to the wolves,’ they said.