A defendant on an ammunition charge told Police he thought bullets contained in a shipment of posters were fake, a trial heard yesterday.

Dion Bassett denies causing or arranging for ammunition to go from Florida to Bermuda without a licence, in October, 2004. The trial has already heard how a Customs officer grew suspicious of the shipment because the shipper and the person it was intended for were both listed as Bassett.

But Victoria Pearman, representing the defendant, told the jury yesterday that when Bassett was first questioned by Police after the posters were found in five boxes at Hamilton Docks he effectively told them the contents inside were ?fake?.

Prosecution witness Detective Constable Warren Bundy said that the defendant had initially told him the firearms found inside were not real.

Later, at Prospect, after some of the bullets had been tested by an expert and most were found to be live, the court heard that Bassett, 28, said he thought the bullets were fake.

The Detective, the officer in charge of the case, agreed Bassett then said that if the bullets were real he would take officers to the shop where he bought them in Miami. He also agreed that Bassett was initially arrested on suspicion of importing firearms, not on suspicion of importing ammunition. The court has already heard that plastic guns, cigars and fake US currency were recovered when the boxes of posters were searched.

Later in the trial, the court heard how a friend of the defendant?s, Bilal Binns, a Bermudian studying in Miami, was part of the investigation in the summer of 2005. Det. Con. Bundy said he understood that Mr. Binns helped Bassett with the poster consignment and agreed that information was received suggesting that the defendant was not alone and was with Mr. Binns when the posters were bought.

Ms Pearman also said that Police had information that Mr. Binns thought the items found in the posters were fake.

In a statement read to the jury, P.c. John Kirkpatrick, a Bermuda Police Service firearms officer, said he received 18 brown paper bags from Det. Con. Bundy for testing. Each contained two rounds of ammunition and all were live apart from two which did not contain any explosives.

The trial, before Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons, is due to continue today.