A man who justified missing his arraignment session almost three years ago because it fell on Emancipation Day, began serving a four-year sentence after he admitted smuggling over seven kilos of marijuana into the Island on April 25, 2000.

Reuben Nakima Roberts, 26, of Beandale Drive, Pembroke was originally due to appear in Supreme Court in August 2000.

However, because his name was written backwards on Police files he was able to elude them until July 2002, when he appeared in Magistrates' Court for an unrelated matter.

The courts heard how Roberts arrived at Bermuda International Airport on April 23, 2000. However, after clearing Immigration, Roberts learned that his luggage did make his flight. On April 25, 2000, Roberts returned to the airport where he claimed two bags as his.

When Customs officials searched his bags, three packages wrapped in shiny paper which Roberts declared as candles were found. While one of the packages in fact contained a candle, the remaining two were compacted blocks of marijuana. Roberts said: "It is mine. It is all mine".

Roberts then voluntarily made a statement to Police, in which he admitted he purchased the 17 pounds of marijuana in Swaziland, South Africa for $500. He claimed that he attempted to import the drugs with the hopes of getting caught so that he could clear the name of his children's mother, who at one point had drug-related charges put against her stemming from a separate incident. Crown counsel Graveney Bannister told Assistant Justice Norma Wade-Miller: "It is the Crown's contention that the defendant is not to expect leniency because he has no similar convictions."

However, defence lawyer Victoria Pearman called her client's situation "a very unusual case".

"This could never in a million years be called a clearly-weaved account. This is amazing," she said. "If Mr. Roberts wanted to deceive the court, he would have come up with a better reason with that."

"I feel great remorse for my actions and I will never participate in such actions again," Roberts told the judge before his sentence was handed down. Mrs. Wade-Miller sentenced Roberts to four years imprisonment with time already spent in custody to be taken into consideration.

"It seems you are still in denial," she told Roberts. "I certainly hope you will participate in the programmes offered."