A 38-year-old convicted drug smuggler had his appeal against an eight-year sentence dismissed in Appeals Court on Wednesday.

Leonard Wynter, normally resident in Ontario, Canada, applied for leave to appeal claiming that Chief Justice failed to make a distinction between heroin and cocaine in sentencing him.

Wynter, who represented himself at the hearing, said his understanding of Bermuda?s drug laws was that heroin importers got a stiffer sentence than those who smuggled cocaine, and the prosecution had cited a heroin smuggling case at the sentencing.

He had pleaded guilty to importing 283 grams of cocaine. He told the court of other cases in which a lesser sentence was imposed for a greater amount of drugs.

But Appeals court president Edward Zacca pointed out that there were a number of similar cases in which longer prison sentences were imposed and that the sentencing regime got stricter in 1987 when lawmakers decided that the maximum sentence for drug smuggling should be increased from 20 years to life imprisonment.

?Why do you think eight years is too much? This is Bermuda you know ? it?s a life sentence,? said Justice Zacca.

Wynter said he had found himself in ?bad circumstances? and ended up on a ?suicide mission?.

?I was a desperate man at the time,? he added. ?I know I have to pay. I was hoping to see the light at the end of the tunnel a little earlier.?

?This is a straightforward case, so we really cannot do much for you,? said Justice Zacca before dismissing the application.