Convicted drug trafficker Kirk Roberts has launched an appeal against a ruling ordering him to give up almost $1 million in personal assets.

Roberts, 46, was sentenced to ten years in jail in 2002 after being found guilty of conspiracy to import cannabis worth $1.4 million to Bermuda, and is currently on parole.

Two years ago, a judge announced he would have to concede his 50 percent share in his house and land at West Side Road, Sandys — $926,531 — which was deemed to be the spoils of his criminal activity.

In a two-day hearing this week, Roberts' lawyer Frank Phipps QC argued that the proceeds of crime hearing had not followed the correct procedure.

On the first day of a two-day hearing, Mr. Phipps said that, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the application for Roberts' to give up his assets needed to have been made by the Attorney General, as by that stage the case was a civil matter.

However, the application was made by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Senior Crown counsel Paula Tyndale argued that the DPP correctly had jurisdiction because the proceeds of crime hearing was in fact a criminal matter.

Mr. Phipps countered that the criminal case ended with Roberts' sentencing in 2002, and that to pursue him for a confiscation in a criminal hearing would have amounted to double jeopardy.

Outside court, Roberts told The Royal Gazette he could not afford to pay the cash as the house belonged to a trust and he would not be able to sell it.

His wife Geralyn Roberts said: "He's not trafficking drugs; he's on parole; he's clean; and he does not have access to a million dollars."

During the 2002 trial, an accomplice claimed 200 pounds of cannabis was collected in St. Vincent and passed to Roberts when he was taken out to sea in December 2000 in Sea Scorpion III to rendezvous with a sail boat off Bermuda carrying the package.

The court heard Roberts was aware that Police were on the lookout for Sea Scorpion III — so he hopped into an inflatable dinghy with the cannabis at a gap in the reef known as Eastern Blue Cut, five miles off Bermuda.

Police searched Sea Scorpion III on its return to Bermuda, but found no drugs. The same day, an abandoned inflatable dinghy was discovered at Crawl Bay, Sandys, but again no drugs were found.

Within two days, Police uncovered more than 900 grams of cannabis at the West Side Road property, where building work was being done.

The drugs were believed to be part of the 200 pounds package, as an incriminating handwritten note was found, mentioning the amount of money Roberts' accomplice testified he had been expecting to receive, as well as other references including "sell fast and expensive".

Before the 2006 proceeds of crime hearing, extensive background checks were carried out into Roberts' financial affairs and ownership of assets to identify what wealth he was assumed to have amassed as a result of drug trafficking in the six years leading up to his arrest.

Puisne Judge Ian Kawaley ruled that $1.8 million could be attributed to Roberts' drug-trafficking between December 1994 and his arrest in December 2000 — meaning that if more of his assets could be found his confiscation could have doubled.

Appeals Court President Justice Edward Zacca retired to consider his judgment.