A woman who was caught at the Sea Terminal with more than £47,000 of criminal cash hidden in her car has avoided an immediate jail term.

Amanda Patricia Done, 31, received a nine month sentence suspended for two years - and was banned from the island for five years.

Deemster Graeme Cook said he had made this ‘exceptional decision’ partly because his hands were tied - his powers were limited under Proceeds of Crime legislation to imposing a maximum sentence of 12 months.

The Court of General Gaol heard that on October 25 this year Customs officers spotted Done behaving suspiciously after getting out of her Fiat Punto near the check-in desk at the Sea Terminal.

A search of her car found a JD Sports bag under the driver’s seat at the bottom of which was a red carrier bag containing cash.

She told Customs officers: ‘It’s cash, I sold a car.’ Done said she had come to the island four days earlier on the Liverpool boat. One of her children was in the car.

Police were called and a small man-bag containing more cash was found under the front passenger seat.

A further search of the car was carried out using x-ray equipment after her arrest. This revealed a large amount of cash concealed in a hidden panel behind a seat. The money totalled £47,864.

Done, of Aspes Road in Liverpool, pleaded guilty to attempting to remove criminal property from the island.

Prosecutor Roger Kane said it was accepted that the defendant had not used her child as a deliberate decoy.

Done’s defence advocate Lawrie Gelling said her client was extremely remorseful, she had no previous convictions and was the sole carer of two young children.

‘She has been used as a mule,’ the advocate said.

Deemster Cook agreed: ‘Well, she has, as many vulnerable woman with children are. That’s the problem - unless the courts take a hard line to deter others, it will continue.’

He pointed out that the cash found was’ in anybody’s language a lot of money’ and it had ‘no doubt’ come from the unlawful supply of drugs and was going back to the drug suppliers across.

‘You must have known that not only did you have two bags of money but also money concealed in the car,’ he told her. He said he thought she was ‘thoroughly ashamed’ of the trauma she had put her child through.

Suspending her nine month jail term for two years and imposing a five-year exclusion order, he told the tearful defendant: ‘I don’t want to see you again.’