A 27-year-old man from Cheshire has been given two-month jail sentence for attempting to smuggle criminal money out of the island.

Callum Davies had tried to claim that he had won £2,000 of the £5,495 he was caught with at the Sea Terminal on the machines at the casino, and that the rest was savings from his job as a ‘self-employed’ chemical engineer. 
He appeared in court on Friday for sentencing.

As we reported in coverage of a previous court appearance, Mr Davies was said to have been spotted acting in a suspicious manner with another man outside Douglas’s Bordello nightclub, near the Sea Terminal, before heading to the build to board the boat, being stopped by port security in the process.

The cash had not been hidden and was tied with an elastic band, and he had admitted he was carrying cash when told by security officers that he was under suspicion.

When later questioned about it by police Mr Davies said: ‘I thought I didn’t have to declare anything under £10,000.’

Police also spoke to the manager at the Palace Casino in Douglas, where Mr Davies claimed he had won some of the money, who explained that as a non-member, he would not have been able to keep playing after winning.

And the biggest winnings on the night that Mr Davies claimed to have been there were £600.

Later, he explained that he had feared for the safety of himself and his family over a drug debt he owed, and had been pressured into smuggling the money.

In mitigation, defence advocate Jane Gray argued that, despite being described as self-employed and having earned £35,000 last year, he held a position at an engineering company which he would lose with a jail sentence.

The court also heard that Mr Davies had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression by his GP, and had been prescribed antidepressants but was also self-medicating with cannabis.

Previous convictions included driving offences and one for actual bodily harm. Sentencing Deemster Graeme Cook said that it seemed the man had ‘come to the Isle of Man with the sole purpose of removing criminal property’.

Deemster Cook gave Mr Davies credit for his immediate guilty plea, which reduced the sentence from a starting point of four months down to two, at least half of which he will serve in custody.