Barbara Roberts took Police directly to 13 separate parcels of cocaine that were hidden inside a refrigerator in the kitchen of her Somerset home, a Supreme Court jury heard yesterday.

And 36 other parcels, each weighing one ounce, were also discovered as well as a patch of burned grass where Roberts admitted she had poured the remainder.

Barbara Roberts, 59, and her husband, William Roberts, 71, are charged with possessing and handling more that $1.5 million worth of cocaine.

Crown counsel Philip Storr also amended the indictment to reflect a third charge of simple possession.

The couple, of West Side Road, Sandys, were re-arraigned at the beginning of yesterday morning's proceedings and each pleaded not guilty to possessing and handling the drug with intent to supply.

However, they pleaded guilty to simple possession of the 30 pounds of cocaine on September 11, 1996.

Mr. Storr refused to accept the guilty plea and said that the Crown would continue with the limited issue of whether the cocaine was intended for supply.

But Barbara Roberts' lawyer, Richard Hector, said that since the Crown rejected his client's plea the entire case should start from the beginning.

However, Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller questioned what the guilty plea meant since it clearly indicated that the issue of possession was admitted.

Mark Pettingill, representing William Roberts, said that the defence had offered a plea. Since it had been rejected it was up to the Crown to prove each component of the charges and that included the possession element.

Senior Crown counsel Brian Calhoun said that the guilty plea to a charge of simple possession "amounted to a partial admission of facts.'' Consequently, he said all that was now required is evidence that dealt directly with those facts which are disputed.

Mrs. Wade-Miller then pressed the defence team and asked whether their clients' guilty plea to simple possession of the 30 pounds of cocaine was a "clear and unequivocal one''.

This prompted Mr. Hector to declare: "We would like to withdraw our plea. I didn't want to cause all this confusion.'' Before the first witness was called, Mrs. Wade-Miller chastised both the Crown and defence teams for the way they dealt with this issue.

She said: "I am really surprised at the way this matter (was) handled...no one asked that the ladies and gentlemen of the jury withdraw while we heard this argument.'' Mrs. Roberts claimed that she found the drugs floating in the sea and brought them up to her home.

"It was floating. It was floating. I should have left it.'' Some of the parcels had become spoiled and she burned those and placed the unspoiled packages in the fridge.