An American who fled to the island after receiving gang threats has been given a suspended sentence for giving Manx police a false name and earning money illegally.

James Alec Douglas pleaded guilty to committing an act against public justice, obstructing police and possessing criminal property, namely £2,286 which had been earned cash in hand without paying tax or national insurance.

He will now be extradited to the U.S., where he stands to face charges for obtaining a passport under false pretences.

His first contact with police in the island was in August 2017, when he was arrested for criminal damage of a car door – when he gave the police the name of his former brother-in-law.

Because there were no records in this name, police issued Douglas a caution.

This resulted in a caution being recorded against the name of his former brother-in-law.

Sentencing, Deemster Graeme Cook said he considered this to be the most serious offence as it could have caused potential consequences had the man attempted to travel to a country which required people to disclose cautions, without realising one had mistakenly been given to him.

Deemster Cook said that he had ‘created a mess of the criminal justice system’.

In October 2021 police executed a search warrant for his address at Spectrum Apartments on Douglas Promenade, which revealed the illegally possessed cash and 2.2 grams of cannabis (for which he was given seven days to run concurrently in the suspended sentence).

This time he provided a fake first name, telling police he was Ashley Alec Douglas.

However, the detective who saw him in 2021 was the same one who had dealt with him for the offence in 2017 where he had given his brother in law’s name.

The detective remembered this occasion, and Mr Douglas later went on to come clean about lying about his name.

The offence he is now facing charges for in the U.S. is for seeking to obtain a passport in a false name.

In sentencing, Deemster Cook took into account that Mr Douglas had recently become a father in April.

In handing him the suspended sentence, he said: ‘I am giving you this chance, I am not sure what America will do’.

He was also ordered to pay £500 in court costs and surrender the £2,286 under the proceeds of crime act.

Defending advocate David Clegg had described Mr Douglas as ‘a young man, who out of his own foolishness dug himself into a hole, and then the only way he could see was to keep digging’.

He explained that he had feared for his life after threats from the gang, and had chosen to come to the island because he had family here.