Just weeks after his appeal of a 30-year robbery sentence was turned down, Rupert Elroy Archibald has appeared in court for a traffic offence.

But the man who defended him last year convinced the prosecutor to drop the matter, suggesting it was an unnecessary charge.

"Mr. Archibald, how are you?'' Magistrate Archibald Warner said, looking up just as Archibald was seated in the dock and at the beginning of yesterday's morning plea court session.

"Struggling,'' said Archibald, who was convicted -- despite Mr. Warner's best efforts at defending him -- of robbing the Bank of Bermuda Somerset branch of $37,000 with two other men.

"Aren't we all. Aren't we all.. .'' Mr. Warner said. "What are you here for?'' "I don't know,'' came the reply with a shrug.

Both men loudly sucked their teeth when Crown counsel Leighton Rochester said Archibald was in court for not having a driver's licence in January 1997.

The 37 year old will serve 20 years for using a firearm. This will be followed by two concurrent ten-year sentences.

He was released from prison in July 1996 after serving ten years of a 15-year sentence for his part in the 1986 gun hold up at Hayward's Supermart in which owner Roger Redman was murdered.

A warrant was issued after Archibald failed to appear in court in the spring of 1997 and it had been outstanding on Police files until yesterday.

"I'll pay it when I get out,'' Archibald said to laughter in the courtroom -- including three prison officers and two Policemen.

"Mr. Rochester, this system must operate with some kind of common sense and fairness,'' Mr. Warner then said. "Your department knows full well where this man is. It's no secret the courts have determined where he will be for a while.'' "What are you going to do Mr. Rochester?'' he asked, whereupon the prosecutor said he would offer no evidence.

"Mr. Archibald, you can go,'' Mr. Warner said.

Yesterday was not the first time that one of the Island's long-term prisoners was dragged before the court to face a minor charge.

In September, Michael Brian Pitcher appeared in an afternoon civil court session for non-payment of a $300 King Edward VII Memorial Hospital bill.

Pitcher was convicted earlier this year of murdering -- with an accomplice -- an elderly neighbour in 1997.

"What're they going to do? Put me in handcuffs and send me to Westgate?'' he said aloud while in the dock. He too was escorted by three prison officers.

Senior Magistrate Will Francis also convinced a bailiff and a hospital representative of the futility of the summons.