A lawyer found guilty of fraudulently trying to gain Bermudian status has taken his case to the Court of Appeal.

Robert William Martyn, 44, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after being convicted by jury last year of conspiracy to fraudulently obtain Bermudian status for his father and, by extension, for himself in 2000.

However, he is appealing against the conviction claiming Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves gave an unfair summing up to the jury at the trial and also failed to give the jury a number of crucial directions regarding lack of evidence in the case.

The trial revolved around a number of birth and marriage documents ? two of which were shown to be fake ? that, had they all been genuine, would have led to the Canadian lawyer and his father obtaining Bermudian status.

Martyn was convicted for presenting two documents, which turned out to be fake, to the Immigration department as part of his father's Bermudian status confirmation application in 2000.

The jury in last year's trial returned a verdict that Martyn, of Harrington Sound Road, Smith's, had conspired to fraudulently claim Bermudian status for his father and, by extension, for himself.

What is not in doubt is the existence of a Bermudian born in 1889 with the surname Martyn.

Martyn's father claimed this man was his own father, and therefore Martyn's grandfather. If correct then legally both men could claim Bermudian status.

But subsequent checks on documents revealed Martyn's father's British passport application document listed his father as being a William John Martyn born in February 1912 in Wolverhampton, England.

And a mocked-up marriage certificate for his grandfather and birth certificate for Martyn's father ? which bore a startling similarity to Martyn's own birth certificate despite being issued almost 30 years earlier ? were used in an application to claim Bermudian status for Mr. Martyn, Sr., which was handled by Martyn.

At the appeal hearing, Martyn was represented by Saul Froomkin QC who argued there could have been no conspiracy because there was "no independent evidence" at the trial that Martyn had conspired with anyone and Mr. Froomkin said the jury should have been given a clear direction on this by Mr. Justice Greaves.

He also claimed there had been a "drawing of inferences and speculation" by the Judge in summing-up for the jury with regard to what Martyn might have known about the genuineness or otherwise of the documents presented in his father's Bermuda status application.

Mr. Froomkin went on: "I say the judge encouraged the jury to believe the Crown's argument. I look at the total summation by the trial judge."

According to Mr. Froomkin the summing up by Mr. Justice Greaves at the end of the trial had the effect of misdirecting the jury because of repeated use of phrases that Martyn had been "the puppeteer" and "the driver of the train" and his father had merely been "a willing passenger" and the "conduit".

Court of Appeal President Justice Edward Zacca and Justices Sir Anthony Evans and Sir Charles Mantell will consider the arguments put forward before deciding on whether to uphold or dismiss the appeal.