A remorseful would-be restaurateur has been jailed for eight months after being caught attempting to smuggle a pound and a half of cannabis into the Island.

Joshua Stovell, 30, a dual citizen of the US and Bermuda who only recently acquired status, told Magistrates’ Court that he had been under the impression that the Island had a more liberal culture when it came to cannabis.

“The stupidest, dumbest mistake I ever made in my life was bringing marijuana here,” he told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner.

He said he’d also been swayed by the high price of the drug in Bermuda compared with that overseas.

Stovell was caught in LF Wade International Airport on August 22 after arriving from Boston. Ordinarily resident in the US, he had come to work for several months at Marcus Samuelsson’s restaurant.

His luggage contained 679 grams of cannabis inside two vacuum sealed bags, as well as a grinder.

“I came to Bermuda wanting to establish myself in the restaurant business,” Stovell told the court. “I own a restaurant back home. I had no intent to get in trouble with the law here. The law where I come from and the law in Bermuda, it’s totally night and day.”

Stovell, who admitted to using the drug frequently at an earlier appearance, said he’d seen cannabis use in Bermuda earlier in the summer and had thought the Island was lenient on the drug.

He told police the cannabis was for his own use but admitted also saying he’d hoped to share the drug with friends and recoup the money he had spent on it.

“I might have been overly honest with the person in interrogation as far as sharing it with friends,” he added.

However, he said: “In no way, shape or form am I person who deals drugs.”

Mr Warner responded that ignorance of the law was no defence, adding: “There is no way that you could not have known the attitudes of our authorities and courts. It’s published daily if not weekly in the newspaper.”

He sentenced Stovell to eight months’ imprisonment for importation, adding no separate penalty for possessing drug equipment.