A drunk driver found guilty of causing a student's death appeared in court yesterday to appeal his conviction. Mauritian-born Bissoonduthsing Ramchurn, who was released on bail after being found guilty in January pending the appeal, was told yesterday he would be held in custody until the outcome of his legal bid.

The 33-year-old, of Duke of York Street, St. George's, was found guilty of the manslaughter of German student Catrin Schaefer in a road accident in 1998. He was jailed for five years and banned from driving for five years and also received three years behind bars for driving while over the alcohol limit and was banned from the roads for two years. The sentences were to run concurrently.

The jury was given the option of convicting the chef of either manslaughter, or the lesser charge of causing death by dangerous driving, which is classed as a traffic offence and they opted for the more serious alternative.

But yesterday, Ramchurn's lawyer Philip Perinchief appealed the conviction on the grounds that Assistant Justice Philip Storr failed to direct the Supreme Court jury properly.

He said Mr. Justice Storr did not distinguish properly between manslaughter and causing death by dangerous driving and did not outline the different degrees of negligence between them.

Mr. Perinchief said the judge also failed to describe what recklessness was in the eyes of the law and how it played a part in the charges.

The lawyer also complained that, when summing up the case and the manslaughter charge, the judge advised the jury to consider whether or not Ramchurn was reckless or had shown total disregard for human safety but did not say that both of those elements could be rebutted if they believed the defendant's evidence that he was not driving on the wrong side of the road or speeding.

Mr. Perinchief said: "With respect, I believe the jury was given the same direction for manslaughter as causing death by dangerous driving. They will have been confused and unable to distinguish between the two.'' However Crown counsel Sandra Bacchus, who prosecuted the case, told the Court of Appeal judges that the evidence in the case had spoken for itself. She added: "I believe the learned trial judge talked specifically about the counts.

"He had made a distinction between the two different charges. The evidence is overwhelming, in my submission, with regards to recklessness.

"He was travelling on the wrong side of the road. The car was travelling at a high rate of speed, in contrast to witnesses who said the girl was travelling at the speed limit or slower.

"The respondent's ability to drive the car was impaired by alcohol and there was catastrophic damage.'' Ms Schaefer died in the early hours of September 27, 1998, of severe head injuries after Ramchurn's car collided with her hire scooter at Stonecrusher Corner on Kindley Field Road, St. George's.

The trial heard witnesses claim that Ramchurn's car was travelling on the wrong side of the road and at high speed when it smashed head-on with the scooter. Ramchurn was found to have 105 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The case was adjourned and a decision is not expected until Friday of next week, at the earliest.