The son of one of the accused in the Bank of Bermuda fraud trial is a wanted man, a judge said yesterday.

Puisne Judge Richard Ground told the jury in the marathon trial that Darren Woods -- a former employee of the Bank of Bermuda and son of defendant Milton Woods -- was deeply involved in Twin Bays Ltd., one of the companies allegedly used by former banker Arnold Todd as a front for his criminal enterprises.

Mr. Justice Ground said: "Not to put too fine a point on it, he (Darren Woods) is a fugitive because the Police would like to talk to him.'' He was speaking during his summing up of evidence in the trial, which has already lasted nine weeks. He is expected to continue this morning.

Todd, 57, of Pearman's Hill, Warwick, faces 17 counts of theft, fraud and false accounting.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between 1985 and 1990, when Todd was a senior loans officer at the Bank of Bermuda.

The prosecution claims he submitted bogus loan applications and that he used several companies to disguise his actions.

In the dock with Todd are importer Varnel Curtis, 49, of St. Anne's Drive, Southampton; former hotel security chief Woods, 61, of Old Road, Southampton; and businessman Cecil Durham, 56, of Ramgoat Hill, Smith's Parish.

All three men face charges relating to the allegations faced by Todd. The alleged offences faced by the four -- involving around $1.2 million in total -- are all denied.

One allegation against Curtis of participating in false accounting has been withdrawn. A similar charge against Woods was dismissed because of lack of evidence.

Earlier yesterday, Mr. Justice Ground reminded the jury that the evidence showed that Milton Woods came to be involved in Twin Bays Ltd. because Darren Woods wanted to incorporate the company and asked his father if he would be a shareholder.

He said that Milton Woods had explained away two signatures in different handwriting on documents he apparently signed on the same day as possibly the result of some trouble with his hand.

But Mr. Justice Ground reminded the jury that a lie could be told not just to cover up personal guilt, but also to protect someone else.

But he added that Woods -- the only one of the four accused to take the witness stand -- had not admitted that to the jury.

In evidence, Woods told the court that Darren Woods -- who was then working at the Bank of Bermuda -- had asked him to hold shares in Twin Bay because he did not want the bank to know of his business activities.

Woods said that the first question he asked his son was if the company was "on the up and up''.

He testified that his son assured him it was and that was good enough for him.

Woods also told the court that he had signed a host of blank documents and was not aware of their significance.

One of the documents was a transfer of half of Twin Bay's shares to Arnest Ltd -- claimed by the Crown to be a vehicle for Todd's alleged speculation, while another made him a cheque signatory.

But Woods denied that he knew one of the documents was a $300,000 overdraft application for Twin Bays.