Suspended sentence for man who had cannabis sent in board game box

24-year-old told he should count himself lucky

Report from BBC Isle of Man

A man who had more than £2,200 worth of cannabis hidden in the box of a board game which was posted to his home address has been handed a suspended sentence.

Vincent Sims, 24, was caught when postal sorting office staff became suspicious about his inquiries about the parcel on 21 April 2022.

The 24-year-old told police he had expected the package to contain a handbag for his friend’s girlfriend.

He was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for 18 months, with a supervision order for the same period.

Douglas Courthouse heard Sims had called the post office about the parcel, which was addressed to his home on Central Promenade in Douglas, after receiving a card stating it had been taken back to the sorting office.

The package, which had been sent special delivery and had a tracking number, was X-rayed by staff before being reported to the police.

When opened it was found to contain two vacuum-sealed packets of cannabis, wrapped up in brown paper and covered in red and white polka dot wrapping paper, which were hidden inside the taped-shut box of a board game.

He was arrested when he later attempted to collect the parcel from the sorting office in Braddan.

When questioned by police about the parcel, and £900 deposited in his bank account, he initially said the cash was from a backlog in benefit payments and savings.

After records showed no such backlog he told officers he had put the money in his account for a friend to buy his girlfriend a Louis Vuitton handbag and that was what he had expected the package to contain.

He later pleaded guilty to importing the cannabis and attempting to possess it with intent to supply.

Sentencing him Deemster Graeme Cook said Sims’ “strange story” about the handbag had been an “absolute load of rubbish”.

He said the 24-year-old had not learned his lesson from a previous conviction for drugs offences in 2019 and should “count yourself lucky” that the probation service had recommended a suspended sentence.