A 22-year-old man from Scotland has been sentenced to 22 months in prison for possessing articles for use in fraud, importing cannabis and a class ‘C’ drug.

Callum McClung will spend half of this in custody here, and the other half on licence while under supervision of the West Lothian probation service in Scotland.

An exclusion order was also given for the offences, which McClung admitted in March, meaning he is now barred from entering the island for five years.

McClung was apprehended at the Sea Terminal in possession of an ‘SMS blaster’ device used for sending text messages en masse, and a HP laptop with the ‘SMS caster’ programme installed, for the same purpose.

Initially stopped because port security found him to be smelling of cannabis, when questioned McClung was unable to provide a satisfactory reason for visiting the island.

He was found to be in possession of 7.5 grams of cannabis plant, and 17 Gabapentin pills, a class C drug.

Gabapentin is an anticonvulsant medication primarily used to treat partial seizures and neuropathic pain and is prescribed by doctors. However, there is a black market in it.

McClung was also found to have several iPhones, and upon later examination data was found to have included ‘thousands’ of UK bank details and associated contact numbers, some of which was labelled under the heading ‘victim information’.

There was also a ‘script’ designed for a scam caller to impersonate HSBC’s fraud team.

Messages discovered included ones which read: ‘SIM cards en route my man, let’s go’.

Defence advocate Stephen Wood argued that the purpose of McClung’s trip was to buy Manx SIM cards for use in fraud in the UK, rather than to commit fraud here.

The court heard that McClung was determined to have been a part of a larger network, using ‘phishing’ and ‘smishing’ methods – impersonating reputable companies to obtain sensitive information from people.

Deemster Cook accepted that there had been no evidence that McClung had committed any actual fraud, and that this was not what he was being sentenced for.

Mr Wood argued that McClung was ‘an intelligent young man who got into financial difficulties because of his drug use’.

As mitigating factors, he argued that it would be difficult for McClung to receive family visits from Scotland during a prison sentence here, and that while bailed, he had caused no issues staying at [halfway] Tromode House.

In sentencing, Deemster Cook said it was a ‘disgusting crime to be part of any sort of plan in’, and while not specifically designed to target the most vulnerable in society, often ended up victimising those individuals.

Credit was given for McClung’s guilty pleas, but Deemster Cook said that he would not order a suspended sentence as his jail term was meant to act as a ‘deterrent sentence’ to warn others not to come to the island with plans to commit fraud.