A visitor was found with 70 rounds of ammunition in his luggage, Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.

Deiter Tech, 34, admitted having 9mm Fiocchi ammunition when he appeared in court.

The rounds were found inside a pocket of Tech’s suitcase at LF Wade International Airport on June 29, the day he was supposed to fly back to the United States with his family.

Tech, who lives in Michigan, told officers he used the ammunition for hunting and forgot they were in his bag.

Officers took him to Hamilton Police Station and seized the ammunition.

Prosecutor Shaunte Simons-Fox suggested that Tech be fined $4,000 for the offence, saying: “Seventy lives could have been lost if the ammunition had got into the community.”

Defence lawyer Victoria Greening said Tech visited Bermuda for his parents’ 40th wedding anniversary and showed “no evidence of criminal intent”.

She requested that Tech be given a conditional or absolute discharge.

Tech apologised for his actions and spoke of the island’s beauty and the friendliness of its people before he was sentenced.

Senior magistrate Maxanne Anderson highlighted Tech’s early guilty plea and lack of previous convictions, but said the court “must take a strong stance against firearm crimes”.

She said: “[People] are shooting mothers in their own homes right now. We cannot have this. The guns are here; all they need is ammunition.”

Ms Anderson fined Tech $4,000 for the offence and ordered him to pay it before leaving Bermuda.

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