Covid: Man jailed for quarantining at Isle of Man flat with friend
- Published
Returning residents can only isolate with those they have travelled with
A man who police had to carry out of a flat he was sharing with a friend when he should have been self-isolating alone has been jailed for breaking the Isle of Man's coronavirus laws.
Justin Hughes, 48, admitted sharing accommodation with someone else after returning to the island from the UK.
Under the island's current rules, returning residents are not allowed to quarantine with anyone they have not travelled with.
Hughes was jailed for six weeks.
The court was told he had returned to the island by ferry on 17 January and told port staff he intended to self-isolate at a flat in Parsonage Road in Ramsey.
He was reported to police by border officials after another man answered the door when they visited the property to check up on him on 2 February.
The court heard although Hughes had been staying in his own room, the flat was not subdivided and the pair had been sharing facilities including the bathroom.
When arrested, he refused to leave the property and had to be carried outside.
'Community at risk'
Hughes, who represented himself in court, said he felt he had been doing the right thing as the room had been stocked with food and he was "more or less isolated" from his friend.
He was previously jailed in September for breaking the Covid-19 rules by visiting a doctor's surgery and refusing to leave while he should have been self-isolating, the court heard.
Sentencing him, magistrates chairwoman Anita Ardern said his actions "could have put the community at risk".
In a separate hearing at Douglas Courthouse, a 41-year-old woman was handed a suspended sentence for driving to a supermarket while drunk when she was supposed to be in self-isolation.
Lisa Langley, of Bowring Road in Ramsey, admitted driving to the Co-operative store on Parliament Street on Sunday to buy tobacco and a meal deal after drinking two litres of cider.
She was sentenced to three months in prison for the driving offence and one month for the Covid breach, both suspended for 18 months, and banned from driving for three years.
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