A drugs courier whose plane was diverted to Bermuda after he became ill from cocaine he had swallowed was sentenced to three years imprisonment yesterday.

DominicanRepublic national Ramon Concepcion was told to think himself lucky he wound up in Bermuda, which was not his intended destination, where he could answer only to charges of possession.

Justice Phillip Storr said he was lucky that medical authorities saved his life and because he could have faced far more serious charges had he reached his destination.

"It is because you had no intention of coming to Bermuda you have only been charged with possession," he said.

Concepcion, a married father of one, was transferring cocaine from Cura?ao to Amsterdam on March 29 when the KLM aircraft he was travelling on was diverted to Bermuda because he became sick.

Conception, 25, plead guilty to the charge of possession of cocaine, which had a higher street value of $286,375, on July 1.

With a Spanish interpreter on hand, Concepcion, who remained in hospital for nearly three weeks after his ordeal, expressed gratitude to the hospital staff and authorities that saved his life by removing the poison from his stomach.

Crown counsel Charmaine Smith said narcotics officers attended the airport on suspicion that a passenger had ingested drugs and followed Conception, in ambulance, to the hospital.

He had indicated he swallowed 100 pellets of cocaine.

An X-ray revealed the presence of foreign objects in Concepcion's stomach. Later, 142 packages containing cocaine were surgically removed.

Concepcion was arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine on April 4 while still in the intensive care unit and was later released from hospital on April 18.

In an interview conducted on April 18, Concepcion admitted the ingestion of 1,400 grams of cocaine. Ms Smith said he told Police he was to be paid $10,000 for transporting the drugs to Amsterdam and that he knew cocaine was illegal in Cura?ao, but was not sure about Amsterdam.

The Government Analyst said Concepcion had 1,243 grams of cocaine with a 59 percent purity - an amount that, if sold in Bermuda in half-gram packs, would have netted $286,375. The cocaine sold in ounces would have amassed $132,000.

Ms Smith said that the court had to take into consideration several points when making its ruling including that the maximum penalty for a first offence was five years or a fine or both.

And she also asked the court to take into consideration the amount of cocaine and the need for the community to be protected from the offender.

After hearing the prosecution's case, defence attorney Elizabeth Christopher said that she agreed with the Crown and the similar case of Dianne Margarita Harvey Rennocks which had been used as a guideline.

However, Ms Christopher took issue with the Crown's claim that there was a need to protect the community from her client.

"With respect to the significance of weight it is accepted in taking the plea of possession it was never the intention of the defendant to supply in this jurisdiction and then it doesn't really matter how much he swallowed," she said.

Ms Christopher stated that her client did not mean any harm to Bermuda as, prior to the incident, he did not know the Island existed nor did he know whether the drugs were illegal in his destination.

And she said her client did not want his son to grow up as he had.

With the interpreter translating, Concepcion told the court that he hoped he could make amends with Bermuda.