A 28-year-old Douglas man has been handed a suspended sentence for cocaine possession.

Andrew Peter Quirk was also made the subject of a year long suspended sentence supervision order and ordered him to pay £125 prosecution costs.

We previously reported that police were called to Baldrine on August 31, where they found Quirk sitting on the kerb.

He was said to be smelling of alcohol and cannabis and had white powder residue around his nose.

A wrap was found in his pocket, which was later confirmed to be 0.19 grams of cocaine, valued by police at £19.

Officers went to his address, at Windsor Road, and a search of the property found 11.4 grams of the drug, valued at £1,140.

After being arrested and taken to police headquarters, Quirk was interviewed and told police that the drug was for personal use.

He said he had bought 10 grams of it for £800, but had not been dealing.

Quirk said that he had a ‘terrible habit’ and was in a ‘terrible place’.

Scales were found at his property but he told police that he only used them to check that he was ‘not getting ripped off’ when he bought the drug, and to ration it out when he used it.

The court heard that the defendant has a conviction in 2016 for supplying drugs.

Defence advocate Victoria Kinrade asked magistrates to follow the recommendation of a probation report, which deemed a period of supervision as the most appropriate sentence.

Ms Kinrade said that her client had personal issues, which were detailed in the report, that she would not go into in open court.

The advocate said that supervision would address the issues and give Quirk better coping mechanisms.

She asked for credit to be given for the defendants guilty pleas and his co-operation with the police.

Magistrates sentenced Quirk to 12 months’ custody, suspended for 12 months.