A man who smuggled £30,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis to the Isle of Man hidden in a car has been jailed.

Christopher McDougall admitted bringing the drugs to the island in 2019 and smuggling mobile phones into the island’s prison in 2018 at a previous court hearing.

On Friday, he pleaded guilty to being involved in the smuggling of £177,000 worth of drugs to the island in 2018.

He was sentenced to 11 years and 11 months.

The court heard McDougall, of Merseyside, was arrested on 24 January last year after £25,000 worth of cocaine and £5,700 worth of cannabis resin, along with a large amount of cash, were found in a hidden compartment in a car he brought to the island by ferry.

More cash was found in the hotel room he was staying in.

A search of his mobile phone revealed messages linking him to a separate case involving the importation of £177,000 of drugs by another man in May 2018.

That haul included £85,416 of cocaine, £52,900 of cannabis resin, and £39,184 of cannabis.

Douglas Courthouse heard the construction worker had been in Merseyside when the messages were exchanged and, although he had realised the other man was “up to something”, he was not sure what it was.

McDougall also previously pleaded guilty to sending two mobile phones into Isle of Man Prison concealed in a pair of trainers in March 2018.

He was sentenced to eight years and eight months for the 2019 drugs offences, four months for the mobile phone offence, and two years and eleven months for his involvement in the 2018 drugs offences.

Deemster Graeme Cook said the island took drugs offences “seriously” because of the “pain to society” they caused.