A man has been imprisoned after using a jet ski to cross the Irish Sea because he wanted to visit his girlfriend on the Isle of Man.
Dale McLaughlan, a 28-year-old man from the north of Scotland, has been jailed for four weeks after he arrived via water scooter on the island – which currently only allows non-residents if they have a special permit.
Incredibly, after spending four and a half hours in transit, McLaughlan then visited two busy nightclubs on the island with his girlfriend, the BBC reports.
McLaughlan – who met his girlfriend while working on the island with permission back in September – admittedly arriving unlawfully on the island, in an episode labelled a "very real risk" by his sentencing officer.
Prosecutors said he only expected the 40km journey to take 40 minutes or so.
After docking up at the Isle of Man, he then walked to the house of his girlfriend, who thought he had been on the island working for several weeks.
The next day, he provided her address as his own to a police officer, before the couple made the trip into town for a night on the tiles.
Deputy High Bailiff Christopher Arrowsmith said McLaughlan's carefully planned journey had put him at "very real risk" of harm.
A defence advocate for the 28-year-old said he suffers from depression and was not coping well with not being able to see his girlfriend.
Following the hearing, a government spokesperson said that public health officials had concluded there was "no wider risk to the public" after conducting an investigation into the incident.
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