While he confirmed gaming equipment was found aboard the ship Only One D on Wednesday, lawyer Llewellyn Peniston said the vessel's partial owner, Neil Inchcup, is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Mr. Inchcup runs the "Seamount Exclusive" club from his Collector's Hill home which was advertised in 2000 as offering a "Vegas" experience to gamblers. Last November, an Island-wide sweep netted Police and Customs more than 300 gaming machines in relation to the Prohibition of Gaming Act 2001, which made it illegal for anyone to upgrade or repair existing gaming machines on the Island. Their actions resulted in Mr. Inchcup taking out a writ against Customs.

"My client never imported those parts," Mr. Peniston said. He added as soon as the cargo was found among the shipment of building material he was expecting, Mr. Inchcup made every effort to see how the mix-up could have happened.

"My client's position is no different from any honest citizen who stumbles across your wallet in the street and makes every effort thereafter to ascertain who the true owner is and to ensure its safe return," he said.

To back his claim the gaming parts were placed on the vessel by mistake, Mr. Peniston faxed The Royal Gazette a copy of a letter written by Gulfstream Line shipping agent president, Glen A. Dias.

"We believe that two pallets and two boxes of miscellaneous gaming equipment are missing from our warehouse.

"These items are for the M/V Texas Treasure Casino Cruise Line. We believe we might have inadvertently loaded them on the M/V Only One D due to an oversight by loading personnel," it read.

Close examination of the document revealed it was sent to Bermuda at 2.53 p.m., a little over three hours after the ship berthed at Marginal Wharf in St. David's.

When it was pointed out that the document seemed well-timed, Mr. Peniston said: "It may on its face appear to be...but my client called the streamline (agency) when he realised the error."

But when contacted by The Royal Gazette last night, Mr. Dias said the error was picked up on his side."We went looking for it in the warehouse and it wasn't there. As soon as we realised there was a mistake, the letter was sent out to a couple of ship owners," he said.

When asked whether he believed the authorities were somehow alerted about the illegal cargo, Mr. Peniston said he was not in a position to confirm that a tip-off occurred.

"Those items were found in the most prominent position of the cargo hold," he said. "If there was any intended malfeasance on the part of my client, one could only assume that greater efforts would have been made to conceal any such deed. There were absolutely no marks on those cases to indicate that my client was the intended consignee." He also stressed that his client has not been charged with any crime connected to Wednesday's search.

"Why should he be? He has not done anything wrong."

A joint Police and Customs statement on the swoop is forthcoming.