Ramsey man who went to Liverpool for higher quality heroin jailed

Alan Ware bought heroin in Liverpool before travelling back to the island

A man who went to Liverpool to buy higher quality heroin before returning to the Isle of Man with it has been jailed.

Alan Ware, of Ramsey, asked a homeless man in the city where he could buy the drug before hiding it in his body and travelling home on the ferry.

The court heard he told police he was "fed up of being dealt poor quality drugs" when arrested on 8 August.

The 44-year-old was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.

The court heard that, on his arrival in Liverpool on 7 August, Ware approached the homeless man outside a shopping centre before being taken to a nearby housing estate where he bought the drugs.

He was arrested at the Sea Terminal the following day on suspicion of concealing drugs and taken to Nobles Hospital over concerns he had swallowed packages.

Wraps containing about £200 of heroin and a small amount of cocaine were found, which he said was for his own personal use.

His defence said Ware had battled with drug addiction in the past and had been clean for six years, before lapsing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sentencing him, Deemster Graeme Cook said: "You knew the risks when you did what you did."