Christopher Nobbs, 19, of Kirk Michael, was sentenced at Douglas Courthouse for agreeing to have cannabis worth about £2,500 sent to him through the post for someone else.[1] Deemster Graeme Cook sentenced him to nine months in prison, suspended for a year, and also imposed a 12-month supervision order.[1] Nobbs had pleaded guilty to importing the drug at an earlier hearing.[1] The case had been sent up from the magistrates’ court to the Court of General Gaol Delivery in November 2020, when Nobbs, then 18 and living on Lord Street in Douglas, was bailed in the sum of £500.[2]

Police were called to the Spring Valley postal sorting office on 3 July 2020 after staff identified a suspicious package addressed to Nobbs at his home in Faaie Ny Cabbal in Kirk Michael.[1] Police opened the parcel and found a red shoe box containing five packets of cannabis.[1] Nobbs was arrested after the parcel was intercepted in July 2020, and the court heard he had agreed to receive it.[1]

After his arrest Nobbs would not say who the drugs were for, saying he feared having his “head kicked in” and did not “want to be known as a grass”.[1] Sentencing him, Deemster Cook said Nobbs “knew” the parcel would contain cannabis when he agreed to receive it, but that he had not known for certain cannabis would be sent, and that if it had held Class A drugs he could have faced a lengthy custodial sentence.[1]