A Douglas man who admitted possessing cannabis has been ordered to do unpaid work to benefit the community.

Aaron Joseph Dean Roberts, of Anagh Coar Close, Douglas was found in possession of 404 grammes of cannabis worth £7,584, a court was told.

Roberts, who is 38, had the drugs at his home address on August 22, this year.

Representing Roberts, Paul Rodgers told the court it was a significant quantity of cannabis. He said Roberts had paid £2,500 for the cannabis and had come into that sum of money lawfully, through rebates due to him from various ‘governmnent agencies’. He said Roberts had also sold a Playstation.

Mr Rodgers told the court Roberts had suffered an accident at work resulting in a subdural haematoma and had not been able to do paid work since. Instead he said he had occupied himself with a variety of voluntary work in the community.

‘He has two very positive references,’ he said.

‘He has been working up to 20 hours a week offering advice to people on housing matters. He has even assisted the court in trying to locate suitable bail addresses.

‘A community service order might help to mirror the kind of work he is doing at the moment,’ he said.

‘Custody is not recommended as he is trying to make positive progress.’

He said Roberts was currently involved with a counselling course. He added the cannabis was used to alleviate Roberts’ health problems he was suffering as a result of his accident.

‘He would like to deal with his problems in a different way, but that is his fall-back position,’ he said.

Sentencing him, Deputy High Bailiff, Jayne Hughes, noted Roberts’ references were very good and very much to his credit given his health difficulties, which had resulted in the loss of his job.

Though it was a significant quantity, she accepted it had been bought using legitimate funds and it was for personal use, not supply.

But there was always a risk that it could end up on the streets in the supply chain, she said. Mrs Hughes also warned him about combining cannabis with medication taken to combat pain.

However, she accepted a community service order was the most appropriate way of dealing with the offence, given the efforts Roberts himself was making.

Roberts received 180 hours’ community service. An order was also made for forfeiture and destruction of the cannabis and he must pay a contribution towards prosecution costs of £125.

Archaeologist Professor Howard Williams will talk about ‘Watchful Warriors on Viking-Age Sculpture’ as part of University College Isle of Man’s History & Heritage lecture series.

It takes place at Elmwood House lecture theatre on Wednesday from 6pm.

He will suggest new ways of interpreting warriors on 10th and 11th century sculptures.

The Queen’s Pier Restoration Trust, the body bidding to renovate Ramsey’s Victorian pier, now hopes some practical work can start on the structure in the new year.

The group hopes to sign a lease of the pier from the government’s Department of Infrastructure soon, now an engineers’ report has been completed.

After that, initial work can begin.

Engineer Tom Durrant, who instigated the project, said the first 60 bays of the structure had been surveyed and a detailed 100-page report produced.

‘No doubt when it is submitted to the DoI and been accepted, you will all get a read,’ he said.

Recent fundraising events include bag packing at Shoprite, which raised £270, and a concert in the Methodist Hall which raised £900. Further events are planned throughout 2017.

The community is to be invited to a special presentation on ‘The way forward’ at the Methodist Hall in Ramsey in January.

‘We want to show that all the precious funds raised so far will mean that, hopefully, work can start in the good weather in 2017, with a signed lease,’ he said.

The TT Riders’ Association has honoured an island supermarket for its fundraising support.

Shoprite was recognised for supporting the charity over a long period by holding collections in its shops around the island.

The TT Riders’ Association is a charity formed in 1951 to give financial help to injured riders and their families. The association secretary, Frances Thorp, said the support was not just limited to hardship resulting from racing accidents. For example some members had been helped with hardship in extreme old age.

‘Our membership consists of the stars of today as well as our oldest members, who are in their late 90s. Fundraising is vital to the TTRA and we thank everyone who helps out,’ Mrs Thorp said.

The rose bowl, which is engraved with Shoprite’s name and is on display in the reception of their main offices in Douglas, stays with them for a year. The official presentation was at a dinner in the UK before it was handed over to Shoprite’s Andrew Thomas.

The TTRA is open to any TT rider past or present. Sister charity, Friends of the TTRA, is open to anyone and concentrates on fundraising matters.

Anyone who wants to find out more information should log on to www.ttra.com

Ahost of Manx artistic talent came together at the weekend for the Isle Gallery’s final exhibition of 2016.

The gallery, based in Tynwald Mills, St John’s, was packed with friends and art lovers to view ‘Nancy Corkish, David Byrne and friends’, which featured a collection of watercolour landscapes created by the aforementioned duo alongside original works from some of the island’s most respected artists.

Nancy and David have created a series of glorious paintings which reflect their shared love of the Manx countryside and coastlines, and their enduring passion for capturing the change in the seasons and the effect it has on the land around them is clear to see.

The exhibition also features paintings by Bruno Cavellac, Anna Clucas, James Duggan, Collette Gambell, Jeremy Paul, Petrina Kent, Eileen Schaer, Nicola Dixon, Kate Jerry, Nicola James and Julie Collins.

The variation of styles on offer is eclectic and dizzying, and from the huge confrontational portraits of Duggan, the dramatic emotional sensorial colourscapes of Clucas through to the bright, dreamlike figures displayed by Schaer, shows perfectly the wide variety of talent the island has to offer. These all contrast beautifully with the calm and serenity of Corkish and Byrne’s paintings.

The exhibition is open for viewing and runs until January 8, 2017.

A shoplifter who stole a candle, vodka and dog food has been sentenced to a term of probation.

Alison Beckley took a boxed candle priced at £26, from Indulgence, on Parliament Street, Ramsey, as well as vodka and dog food from the Ramsey Co-op on Christian Street on October 17.

An earlier hearing was told the 37-year-old selected items in the Co-op to buy, which she paid for at the till but no money exchanged hands for the vodka or dog food which she had been seen taking from the shelf.

She was intercepted by the shop manager and the vodka and dog food were found in her rucksack along with the candle from Indulgence.

Beckley, of Fairfield Avenue in Ramsey, told police: ‘It’s an addiction. There’s no thought in it.’

She was also charged with using provoking behaviour on December 30, last year, and breaching a licensing act ban on December 2 last year.

Her advocate Jane Grey told the court her client was content to be subjected to a further licensing act ban as some of her offences were alcohol-related.

‘She is engaging fully with the support services teams and with recommended care plans,’ she said,

She reminded the court two of the matters dated back almost a year and therefore a second pre-sentence report on the defendant had been ordered. She said £800 costs had been incurred on the provoking behaviour matter because of a late change of plea to guilty, after time and expense had been incurred preparing for a trial. But she said given the background to the case, it would not be appropriate to impose such costs on Beckley.

Passing sentence, Deputy High Bailiff, Jayne Hughes, said: ‘The later offences were committed while you were on bail for provoking behaviour and awaiting sentence and you were also subject to an earlier conditional discharge.

‘Alcohol is a theme running through your offending. Alcohol is never going to work: it’s only going to make things worse.’

But she acknowledged there was also mitigation, not least in the form of her admissions. This was late in the day, for the provoking behaviour charge, because experts’ reports had been awaited, she said.

She said Beckley had been co-operative with support programmes and engaged fully with the various services.

She received a total of 12 months’ probation, a 12 month licensing act ban and £500 costs.

Here is the latest Business View column from James Penn, senior portfolio manager, Thomas Miller Investment, in the Isle of Man. He turns his attention to the legal battles undertaken by tobacco firms in the wake of an onslaught in regulations.

The tobacco companies’ failure to overturn plain packaging in the Court of Appeal last week cannot have surprised anyone.

The courts first ruled on the matter in May, after an EU Directive was introduced permitting member countries to legislate on the matter.

This will replace individual brand colours with somewhat intimidating photographs of diseased foetuses, lungs, and other organs, with huge health warnings plastered on the sides of packs. It represents the biggest attack on the industry since the ban on smoking in public places fifteen years ago.

The names of the brands will remain, but – deprived of their own individual patterns and colour schemes – they surely won’t have quite their old potency.

There is a danger of ‘trading down’ to cheaper names, and potential jeopardy to the ‘growth brands’ that the tobacco companies have invested in heavily.

The four companies that took the case to the Appeal Court were Japan Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Philip Morris and British American Tobacco. The last two have almost no sales in the UK, but were worried about the setting of precedents.

They argued that the new law infringed on their brands and patents. But the judges took the view that infringement of a brand is only exercised when another company tries to exploit it.

The tobacco companies may take the matter to the Supreme Court, but it is almost inconceivable that they will win, and the probability is that the new packaging begins to trickle through next year.

Manufacturers were banned from producing old style packs from May, but are able to use up old stocks until May 2017, after which point all cigarettes will have to be sold in the new style packs.

The same legislation was passed in France earlier this year, and all cigarettes will need to be sold in new style packs from January 2017.

Plain packaging was first introduced in Australia in 2012. The topic is contentious, but it is thought responsible for a quarter of a 2.2 per cent decline in the smoking rate over the following three years, though it is difficult to separate this out from the effect of any rises in excise duty. So it has had some impact, but not been that material.

However, the smoking incidences in France and the UK are higher at over 20 percent versus 13 per cent for Australia, and the populations are bigger, so there is the danger of a greater impact on volumes this time round.

The first indication we will get is likely to be in February or March from Imperial Brands, which has a big position in France following its acquisition of Altadis over ten years ago.

Plain packaging is the latest in an onslaught of regulation over the past 30 years. It comes on top of bans on sport sponsorship, TV advertising bans, other advertising bans including print media, duty hikes, health warnings, bans on smoking in public places, and the ban on point of sale display.

The government has come a long way since trying to scare adolescents with its Nick O’Tine character in the early 1980s, which I seem to recall led to an increase in smoking rather than the opposite.

One might ask, after all this, what else can the authorities do? Double excise duty? A complete ban? But that would just hand the industry over to criminal elements.

There is a worrying array of countries intending to introduce plain packaging in the wake of France and the UK. These include Ireland, Malaysia, Turkey, New Zealand, Canada and Hungary, all of which have either passed legislation, or are planning to imminently.

The tobacco model has worked surprisingly well over the past 20 years: global volumes decline every year, but the tobacco companies manage to grow revenue at low single digit rates after pushing through price rises. Rationalisation of production, cuts in marketing spend, and share buy backs, have meant returns have been good.

This is one area where you don’t get new entrants, so competition is not a problem.

Over the next few years no doubt it will continue to be a balance between regulatory and government induced volume declines on one hand, and price increases, cost cuts and M&A/consolidation on the other.

The balance has been in favour of the latter in recent years, but plain packaging has the capacity to swing it in favour of the former.

The opinions stated are those of the author and should not be taken as investment advice. Any recommendations may not be suitable for all, so please contact your financial adviser for further guidance. The value of investments can go down as well as up.

A large pane of glass was smashed at Java Express on the corner of Athol Street and Prospect Hill, Douglas, on Saturday night - and police suspect the culprit was injured as a result.

Officers want the person responsible to come forward and account for the damage.

If you have any information, contact police headquarters on 631212.

Steve Burrows probes why the British have been ‘rubbish’ at applying technological innovations within businesses, in this his latest IT Matters column for Business News.

The major business event since my last article has been the UK Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and his recognition of the UK’s low productivity.

I am delighted to see this, there have been several authoritative reports over the past couple of decades comparing the productivity of UK industry unfavourably with France, Germany and the USA.

But to me it has felt as though the UK, and by extension the Isle of Man because of our strong business connections and similarities, has plodded along the same old path in denial of the problem.

The document which appears to have finally made the difference is the SPERI (Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute) paper titled ‘Innovation, research and the UK’s productivity crisis’ published earlier this year.

It’s online, if you Google for it you will find it. Its hugely eminent author, Professor Richard Jones, tells us that UK productivity is around 13 per cent below the G7 average, and 24 per cent below the world’s productivity leader, the USA. France and Germany are both within spitting distance of the USA, whereas the UK is languishing at the bottom of the G7 league with Italy.

It’s not that British productivity has been falling overall, although it clearly has since the financial crisis in 2008, it’s more that our productivity has not risen as fast as our competitors since the widespread adoption of computers in business.

Figures back to 1970 show that French and German productivity has been growing faster than British productivity for nearly half a century.

Since the financial crisis British productivity has ceased growing altogether and is actually declining, particularly dragged down by the chronic under-performance of our massive financial services sector. It’s difficult not to draw the conclusion, which Professor Jones and many other researchers have over the past couple of decades, that the French and Germans have been more innovative in exploiting Information Technology than the British.

rubbish

I recall a previous study at the turn of the century revealing that on average the French get around twenty percent better return on investment from their IT projects than we Brits. The irony to me is that we Brits are widely recognised as being better at inventing new technologies than the French and Germans - we’re just rubbish at applying those innovations within our businesses!

Professor Richard Jones identifies that in order to reverse the trend Britain must invest more in Research and Development, and more in Innovation - which practically means applying the products of our R&D into our businesses instead of standing by whilst the rest of the world exploits our creativity.

What has this to do with the Chancellor’s Autumn statement?

In it he recognised not only our productivity malaise, but also the need for much more UK investment in R&D and Innovation, and committed substantial funds and tax reliefs to several initiatives designed to help raise productivity through the encouragement of R&D and Innovation.

The reality is of course that not all British businesses have been poor at growing productivity, some British firms are clearly world leaders.

The whole topic is close to my heart because prior to moving to the island I was a director of a large and mature UK business which increased its value ten-fold over a decade whilst only increasing labour three-fold, and a major contributor to our exceptional productivity was our superior exploitation of technology.

We grew to dominate our sector with over 50 per cent UK market share and left our many competitors scrabbling to divide the rump of the market between them.

laggards

We were not alone in our success; in Britain there is huge divergence in productivity between the best and the also-rans, but whilst the best of the British rival the best in the world, the majority of British businesses are clearly laggards - most British companies must be significantly worse than our principal European and American rivals because our national average productivity is so much lower.

In short the probability is that your business is a productivity laggard, and that its poor productivity compared with G7 peers is substantially due to poor innovation and exploitation of Information Technology.

I hope that gets your hackles up.

It’s an unpleasant thought to face but a statistical reality. A German or French or American worker only needs to work four days a week in order to create the same value as a Brit.

three-day weekends

We could all enjoy three-day weekends with no loss of wealth, or work the same hours as now but be much wealthier, if most British company bosses were not such luddites.

At this point there should be a chorus of bosses protesting that they already spend a fortune on Information Technology - and sadly they are right. We commonly spend the right money on the wrong things. To be crystal clear, the money spent on server storage / electronic filing systems, access control / user directories, email systems, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, anti-virus etc. is almost worthless.

It’s a cost of being a 21st Century business, it doesn’t add value because almost everyone has it irrespective of whether they spend five thousand pounds per worker per annum providing it, or buy a Google GSuite subscription (formerly Google Apps) for £33 per worker per annum.

There is of course a big difference between these two options - for 33 quid a year Google is probably less likely to lose your data to a system failure or ransomware attack than the million pounds worth of in-house IT equipment being run by your very expensive on-payroll technicians.

Base IT infrastructure, the stuff I’ve mentioned above, does not add business value, does not significantly enhance productivity, does not make your business more competitive - because everyone else has it too, the only variable is how much money they pay / waste on buying it. It is of little more significance than the stationery cupboard - and most businesses soon grind to a halt if they run out of paper. Spending a fortune on everyday IT does not equal innovation or technology exploitation.

So what does? How do we exploit Information Technology to make a worthwhile productivity difference to our businesses?

Fundamentally we need to be using IT to do three things: reduce the work done by people, automate business process, and eliminate re-work - these are the labour productivity drivers. There are other important dimensions of IT, such as better information leading to better decision making, but productivity is about delivering more output with less labour.

productivity

I could fill the rest of the newspaper with examples of using IT to increase productivity, but I’ll give you one very simple and common case which you will have seen - customer address capture.

This is a perfect demonstration that improving productivity is not difficult; you just ask for the customer’s postcode, type in those six characters, ask which building and select it from the list with a click of your mouse, and you have accurately entered the customer’s address into the computer.

Manually capturing an address over the phone typically takes a couple of minutes or more and commonly includes mis-spellings, using an address capture system takes half a minute and is correct first time.

Productivity improvement is not rocket science, it’s achieved by making many small savings on frequently repeated tasks. Capturing data by getting the customer to type it in for you, auto-dialling outbound calls, automatically calculating the correct pricing based on the customer’s discount rate, automatically printing / emailing the appropriate documents, automatically reconciling payments to invoices etc. are all examples of common automations applicable to the majority of businesses.

They save effort, reduce errors, and the chances are that you already do some of them.

automate

So what are our competitors doing differently to us? Basically they’re walking around their businesses and asking themselves what they can automate next, and what common mistakes or problems can be eliminated, on a continual basis. They put these changes / improvements into their computer systems on a continual basis, making system changes every week - until they run out of ideas. Instead of just doing the basics they systematically try to automate everything in sight.

It was put to me a few years ago that the employees who achieve best labour productivity have several key characteristics; they are intelligent, goal oriented, open to change, and downright lazy.

They want to do as little work as possible for the achievement of their goals and will seek to modify their work environments accordingly.

So herein is the formula for achieving maximum productivity by better use of IT.

Think lazy, avoid all the work you can avoid, automate as much work as you can, spend your IT budget on automation, and do it continuously - a week without a productivity-enhancing IT change is a week when your competitors did better than you. Laziness, in business, appears to be a virtue.

Jon McGowan, chief executive of the island’s MAC Group, has earned the accolade of world’s fifth fittest CEO after participating in the gruelling Island House Triathlon in the Bahamas.

The invitational event, #Pain in Paradise, is the brainchild of veteran fund manager Mark Holowesko and attracts 40 of the world’s greatest professional triathletes who compete for a prize fund of $500,000.

It takes place over three days and is a true test of endurance with different combinations of Swim, Bike, Run being completed every day.

The Fittest CEO competition runs parallel with the professional event and sees CEOs joining some of the world’s top professional athletes including Olympic champion Gwen Jorgensen and former Ironman World Champion Sebastian Kienle.

Jon’s placing in the event is all the more remarkable given that he has only just recovered from a broken elbow and on the second day of the triathlon crashed off his bike on to the same arm.

Amazingly he was fit enough to continue on to the next swim and then set about posting the best time of all CEOs in the subsequent final run.

However the five minutes lost while receiving medical attention was costly and he eventually finished fifth, just seven minutes behind the outright winner, Shannon Horn.

As the only non-US resident CEO to participate in this year’s event, Jon was selected after his qualification for the World Duathlon Championships, held in Spain in June, and ITU World Triathlon Championships, held in Mexico in September.

Although Jon’s elbow injury prevented him representing Great Britain this year, his triathlon track record over the past two years coupled with Jon’s recent success in expanding the MAC Group - resulted in him receiving a coveted invitation to the Bahamas.

On the last day of the triathlon he was paired with professionals Rachel Klamer and Leon Griffin and said it was a privilege to compete with such talented individuals:

Jon said: ‘It was a great experience to run, swim and cycle alongside some of the biggest names in the sport, as well as meet so many CEOs at the top of their game,.

‘I made some fantastic new friends and it was an inspirational few days, particularly as the Bahamas had just been badly hit by Hurricane Matthew and, via the competition’s link with the charity More Than Sport, we were able to help hand build bicycles for some of the local children whose school had been badly damaged while we were there.’

Jon is grateful for the support and encouragement he receives from his wife Heather, who is also a keen triathlete and swimmer, and he fully appreciates the backing from the team at MAC and is an advocate for balancing business, with family and a healthy lifestyle.

‘I’m a strong believer that sport helps not just to keep you fit but also to relieve stress and re-energise the batteries.

‘Working in the insurance and healthcare industry, it’s important to me to lead by example and set aside the time to stay fit and well.’

While Jon has yet to decide which competitions he will pursue next year, he has plenty to occupy him at MAC over the winter months.

‘Following on from our investment in Nugent Santé earlier in the year, we have several developments in the pipeline and expect to make some exciting announcements in 2017.’ The MAC Group is a leading insurance and financial services business based in Athol Street, Douglas.

The Island House Triathlon was filmed and will appear on TV in the US in early 2017.

An inquest was opened into the death of tattoo artist David Howarth.

Mr Howarth, aged 42, was found unconscious in bed at his home in Summerhill Road, Onchan, by his girlfriend, Friday’s hearing heard.

A medical report stated he had a fractured skull and that he had been unconscious for at least 12 hours.

Mr Howarth had a history of aortic valve disease.

He was taken to Noble’s Hospital on December 1, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit.

The life support machine was turned off early the next morning and he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

Coroner of inquests John Needham said investigations into the death were ongoing, adding that the medical cause of death was ‘yet to be established’.

He asked for his condolences to be passed on to Mr Howarth’s family.

The inquest was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

A 3am bust up with bouncers at a Douglas night spot landed two teenagers with fines after an appearance before the Deputy High Bailiff.

Callum Christopher Misselbrook, of Albert terrace, Ramsey and Luke Jerome Campbell, of Gladstone Avenune, Ramsey, said door staff at the Courthouse bar were heavy-handed when they asked them to leave the premises soon after 3am.

For the prosecution, James Robinson said staff told the pair they had to leave as the club was closing.

But 18-year-old Misselbrook told them: ‘I’m rolling a fag before I go anywhere.’

When bouncers moved to ‘escort them from the premises’, Mr Robinson said Misselbrook became aggressive telling them: ‘Touch me and I’ll knock you out.’

Bouncers ended up pinning both youths to the nightclub floor as they yelled obscenities.

Police arrived and Misselbrook made an offensive comment to one of the bouncers as he was escorted away.

At the police station, Campbell, also 18, told police he remembered the incident but recalled little of what had happened.

Misselbrook said he too remembered little of what had happened but added the door staff were in the wrong.

The court heard Campbell had no previous convictions and Misselbrook had only a very limited record, though he was on bail for other matters at the time of the incident.

Both youths admitted disorderly behaviour on licensed premises on November 26.

Representing Misselbrook, Stephen Wood said his client had been at the club with four others for a number of hours without incident.

He said Misselbrook had just bought a round of expensive drinks when they were told the club was about to shut and they had to leave immediately.

‘He said he was going to roll a cigarette first and the next thing he knew he was being dragged off their seats on to the floor. His words were threatening but the reaction it evoked was beyond what was necessary,’ Mr Wood said.

A statement from Misselbrook said: ‘I had no intention of following through with knocking anyone out but I was taken to the floor. They were very heavy-handed with me.’

For Campbell, Jane Gray said her client was apologetic and knew his behaviour had been unacceptable.

Sentencing them, Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes said she could offer credit for the defendants’ admissions but not for their co-operation with police.

She said the offences were serious and were commited while both youths were intoxicated.

Misselbrook was fined £600 and ordered to pay costs of £125. Campbell was fined £500 for his lesser part in the offence and also pays £125 costs.

As the offences took place on licensed premises, both were banned from entering on-licensed premises for one month.

New chairman of Manx Utilities Dr Alex Allinson will asked for Tynwald approval this week to raise the sewerage rate from 92 to 98p in the pound from April.

The sewerage rate had been due to go up by about 33 per cent, an average of £50, next year but will now increase by inflation-only, albeit the 6.5 per cent inflation rate as measured by the Retail Prices Index rather than the 1.0 per cent as measured by the Consumer Prices Index.

Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan announced during question time as last month’s Tynwald sitting that the Council of Ministers had supported the Treasury’s request to restrict the increase in the sewerage rate to inflation only for the period 2017-18.

He also announced he was commissioning an independent review of Manx Utilities’ financial position.

A second automatic defibrillator machine has been installed in Noble’s Park.

The new machine is attached to the wall of the Noble’s Park pavilion near to the toilets and the Hoggery headquarters of the Road Racing Medical Services.

A first defibrillator was attached to the wall of the grandstand building in the summer. The latest equipment has been installed thanks to a partnership between Douglas Council, which provided the device and the Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation charity that provided the secure case for it.

Council leader David Christian thanked the charity for its support and stressed the importance of the defibrillator, which can be used by any member of the public, in the event of a cardiac arrest. Other machines are at Douglas golf course, town hall, library and crematorium and Ballacottier service centre.

A builder’s after-work drinking session could cost him his livelihood.

Stephen Michael Pawlak, of Heather Crescent, Pulrose, admitted drink driving on December 3.

For the prosecution, James Robinson told the court the 63-year-old had been drinking in the Bowling Green pub in Douglas. But unfortunately for him, an anonymous tip off to police informed them Pawlak was about to drive off in his yellow van, which was parked in nearby Brisbane Street.

Mr Robinson said police found the van, which was registered to the defendant. The van then drove away onto Derby Road where it was stopped.

Pawlak got out of the van holding his hands up and saying to police: ‘I’ve had four pints. So whose grassed me up?’

He failed a road-side breath test and a second test at the police station produced a reading of 61. The drink drive limit is 35.

Defending him, Jane Gray said her client was a self-employed builder who had been working that day then stopped for a drink.

‘This will affect his business catastrophically as he needs his vehicle to do his work. He admits he’s been very stupid,’ she said.

She said he had caused no trouble to police and was of previous good character.

‘This has not been a regular event for him,’ she said.

She told the court the van was actually parked on Green Lane, and he had driven only a very short distance.

Passing sentence, Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes said it was hard to comprehend why a man of good character, aged 63, would do such a thing.

‘Your comment suggests someone reported you, and quite rightly so,’ she said.

He was fined £800 with £125 costs, banned for two years and must take an extended driving test.

A report providing an update on the work of health chiefs to address the recommendations of a major UK review on patient safety will go to Tynwald this month.

In 2010 Robert Francis QC was appointed to hold a public inquiry into serious failings at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in England.

A report setting out the inquiry’s findings was published in 2013 and included 290 recommendations.

Given the seriousness and magnitude of the findings of the ‘Francis Report’, that same year the island’s then Minister for Health, David Anderson, commissioned a review to see which of Francis’ 290 recommendations were applicable to the Isle of Man’s health services.

Led by Michael Coleman MLC, the review determined that 233 of the recommendations were in scope, with the remaining 57 representing issues only relevant to the NHS in England.

The report to this month’s sitting of Tynwald shows that the Department of Health and Social Care has made progress in a number of areas, but with more work still to do.

Health and Social Care Minister Kate Beecroft MHK said: ‘I have made it clear that patient safety remains a top priority for the Department of Health and Social Care. This report details the important work of the Department to implement the lessons learned from the appalling failings of care at Mid Staffordshire in England.

‘It is clear that progress is being made and I commend our workforce for all of their efforts to deliver change. This report allows us to take stock of our progress to date, but there is more work to do and we must ensure that we maintain momentum.’

Areas of progress outlined in the report include the new National Health and Care Service Act 2016 which, among other measures, will enable the DHSC to develop a Charter to set out the rights, expectations and obligations of patients and care providers.

The West Midlands Quality Review Service has carried out independent external peer reviews of the island’s health services.

There have been efforts to improve public engagement, such as the community roadshows at the start of 2016.

And there is a new focus on separating commissioning from service delivery.

Finally, the department has drawn up a core set of values and a new development plan for the organisation.

But areas for further work have been identified.

These include examining the potential for additional regulation of health and care services, which the Minister is reviewing as a priority, and strengthening patient and public scrutiny of services such as widening the remit of the Health Services Consultative Committee.

Another plan is for the creation of a single complaints scheme for the department as part of the National Health and Care Service Act 2016.

Freedom of Information is set to be rolled out across all government departments and the police from January.

Tynwald will be asked to approve the move at this week’s sitting.

Currently, the Freedom of Information Act only applies to the Cabinet Office and the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture.

But, if Tynwald gives the go-ahead, it will be extended to cover all the other departments, as well as the Chief Constable and the Clerk of Tynwald.

This means it will apply to the departments of Economic Development, Education and Children, Health and Social Care, Home Affairs, Infrastructure and the Treasury.

The Constabulary is listed separately to the Department of Home Affairs as they are treated as separate entities in civil proceedings and data protection. In England and Wales, police forces are registered separately from the elected Police and Crime Commissioners for FoI purposes.

Freedom of Information came into force on February 1 this year.

Responses to the 48 FoI requests made since the Act was introduced are published on the government’s website.

Isle of Man Newspapers has submitted five FoI requests in that time - all to DEFA and so far four have been turned down.

We requested copies of the health and safety accident investigation reports in the runaway Snaefell Mountain Railway tram, the overturned MER tram at Laxey, the bouncy castle drama at Douglas Carnival and the blaze at the Mount Murray Hotel.
The newspapers requested a review of the decision not to release the bouncy castle report but that decision was upheld. We have also requested a review of the decision not to disclose the accident report into the runaway Mountain Railway tram and are awaiting a reply.

And we are also awaiting a response to an FoI request for information on the trading performance of the Meat Plant, an initial inquiry direct to DEFA failing to elicit figures for losses and throughput, on the grounds this is ‘commercially confidential’.

Kingswood Honda has been named by Honda UK as its number one dealership for customer service.

The Douglas business won the Honda Customer Service Award from May to October 2016, ahead of major dealerships across the British Isles to land the award.

Owner Brent Mealin said it was recognition of the hard work and professionalism of staff involved, as well as the loyalty of customers.

‘We are measured, on a daily basis, on all aspects of the business, and that is fed into a customer satisfaction index,’ he said. ‘From May to October, we were measured as number one for the whole of the British Isles.

‘Kingswood Honda has enjoyed excellent customer retention for many years. What is very clear from our customers is the value they place on quality of services, as well as the quality of the product.’

David Land, General Manager for Kingswood Honda, which is based in Kingswood Grove, Douglas, also said: ‘We are thrilled to have won this award, with the continued loyalty of our customers and the professionalism and attention to detail of our staff. It all adds up to being number one in the country. We would also like to thank our customers for their tremendous loyalty.’

Staff at Quinn Legal have been busy collecting baby gifts to support the Salvation Army Christmas Present Appeal.

Quinn Legal’s employees have generously donated useful baby items, as well as collecting from family and friends.

Gifts have included items of clothing and blankets, along with teethers and toys appropriate for babies and toddlers aged from 0-3. Helped by generous donations from members of the public, the team were successful in collecting over 75 baby gifts for disadvantaged, local families in need over Christmas.The Salvation Army work tirelessly each year to help local families enjoy the festive period.

Joanne Goldy, marketing executive at Quinn Legal said: ‘Each year the Salvation Army brings a lot of joy to families within the local community, and this year Quinn Legal are proud to be involved in supporting their work.

‘We have been amazed by the generosity of members of the public who kindly dropped baby items into our reception and wish to sincerely thank them for their help.’

Captain Carolyn Clampton said: ‘In past years the Salvation Army has struggled to collect items appropriate for babies and toddlers. Christmas is a special time of year, but for some families in the island it can add considerable pressure to their budgets. Our goal is to alleviate this pressure and take care of the presents so parents do not have to worry as much.’

There is a strong possibility that the Isle of Man will find itself – along with the UK – outside of the EU Customs Union following Brexit.

And possible introduction of tariffs could mean that circumstances may become more difficult for exporters of fish and agricultural produce and manufactured goods to the EU.

Those are among the conclusions of a third interim report by the Council of Ministers on the implications for the island of the UK’s exit from Europe.

In a foreword, Chief Minister Howard Quayle said there was still much uncertainty.

He said: ‘Like so many international events, this is beyond the control of the Isle of Man, but we must ensure that we respond appropriately.

‘We want to continue to be able to trade with the EU, to minimise the potential risks flowing from Brexit, and make the most of any opportunities which arise.

‘But we must acknowledge that the shape of our new relationship with Europe will rest upon what the UK can secure for itself, and for now it is very difficult to determine what that relationship will be.’

Initial analysis by the Cabinet Office shows that the areas impacted most significantly will be Customs and Excise and Agriculture and fisheries. In addition, there will be an impact on passports, immigration and nationality.

The report says that the island’s position cannot be determined before the eventual UK position – or at least the direction of travel – is known.

But it notes the UK’s options are narrowing, with a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement emerging as the more likely eventual settlement.

Inclusion in the EU Customs Union is ‘very much under threat’, it says – and that may mean customs barriers of some sort between the UK/IOM and the EU.

The report says that none of the negative features associated with UK’s membership of the EU (budget contributions, loss of sovereignty, or lack of immigration control) applied to the Isle of Man - and so the UK leaving the EU does not seem to offer much in the way of opportunities for us. And any perceived benefits, for the UK, of leaving could take years to materialise.

The report adds: ‘In the short term, fluctuations in the value of sterling, and potential removal from the EU Customs Union (and the related increase in administrative processes), and possible introduction of tariffs could mean that circumstances may become more difficult for

exporters of agricultural produce (including fish) and manufactured goods to the EU.’

There could also be limitations on the free movement of labour and transport links while the loss of UK influence within the EU will also be felt.