magistrate remanded a homeless man in prison for six weeks because he trespassed on a property just one day after he was convicted of that same offence.

Colin Thomas Eve, 46, of no fixed address, was given a conditional discharge for 12 months on Wednesday morning after he admitted trespassing at a rest home in St. George's.

But Thomas left the court room and went straight back to a shed on the property where he makes his home in contravention of the Senior Magistrate's order.

Consequently, he was rearrested and charged with the offence of trespassing and appeared in court yesterday.

When asked why he had contravened the court's order, Eve said that he lived and worked at St. George's rest home.

And Police prosecutor Sgt. Phil Taylor said that there was a shed on the St.

George's rest home property that contained a pump room and Eve believed that he had a right to reside there.

Moreover, Sgt. Taylor said that the staff at the rest home have had to erect No Trespass signs on the property as a result of Eve's actions. On Wednesday, Mr. Will Francis said that Bermuda lacked the legal clout and services to properly deal with mentally-ill offenders like Eve.

And he gave Eve a conditional discharge for 12 months after he admitted a charge of trespassing at a rest home in St. George's last Tuesday.

Mr. Francis said: "This is a clear example of the sort of problem we have -- we don't have anything in our laws or institutions, it seems to me, to deal with this sort of person.'' Eve, 46, admitted trespassing on the grounds of St. George's Rest Home on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.

The court has heard that Eve suffered from psychiatric problems but it appears that he does not fit into the category of St. Brendan's or anywhere else.

In all Eve has close to ten separate offences for trespassing on the St.

George's rest home.

Just like he did on Wednesday, Eve, who seemed not to follow the court proceedings, told the court that he was a self-employed gardener and yard cleaner.

He appeared to claim that he had been working at the rest home tending to the garden and painting the walls.

Since the old offence of wandering abroad had been struck from the books, Mr.

Francis pointed out that the courts had fallen back on the offence of trespass to deal with the kind of offence committed by the accused.

"This is my dilemma,'' the Senior Magistrate said. "He has a mental problem but St. Brendan's does not seem to want him and I don't know about his own family.'' He then ordered social and psychiatric reports be prepared and remanded him in custody. But this could be as long as six weeks at Westgate given that there is a shortage of staff at the Probation Services' department.

Based on the average of $40,000 to house and feed an inmate for one year at Westgate, the six weeks that Eve will spend on remand will cost the taxpayer $769.23 per week or $4,615.38 for six weeks.