Hamilton businessman Goodwin Davano Spencer was sentenced to seven years in prison yesterday for money laundering.

His case was the first of its kind tried under the Proceeds of Crime Amendment Act 2007 & 2008, which broadened the definition of the crime.

A jury found the 40-year-old guilty of 11 charges of money laundering on behalf of Trinidadian Wayne Jagoo. Involved were nearly $160,000 in profit from drug trafficking.

Spencer, who runs Tuff Shoes and Mega Power Car Care Products, was convicted last month of sending Jagoo the money, or helping him access it.

The Trinidadian national has already been convicted in the UK for possessing criminal property in the form of US$170,000, in July, 2005 after he was arrested on his return from Bermuda.

Yesterday, before Spencer was sentenced, he maintained the investigation was part of a conspiracy against him and he was innocent.

He said: "I want to first of all, I want to maintain my innocence of all these convictions. I hear all this talk of drugs and money laundering.

"My dealings with Jagoo were legitimate. We were involved in an import/export company where we were buying a boat to import goods.

"Everything, all that money I sent to Jagoo, was my money I had raised from private investors. All this here the investigations all found out, but they chose to ignore the facts of the case. It's (the evidence) all circumstantial. I feel like I'm being victimised."

According to prosecutors, however, Spencer helped launder $159, 983.77 between November 2004 and November 2005 from Bermuda accounts to Jagoo.

The first of the questionable transactions took place on November 9, 2004 the day after Jagoo arrived on the Island and four days after Julie, the yacht in question, was delivered to Bermuda from Antigua.

It was searched by a narcotics officer who found no drugs, however a a hazardous diesel spill prevented a sniffer dog from going into the cockpit.

On November 9, Spencer wired $7,500 to Jagoo's girlfriend in Trinidad and for six months following this, prosecutors said a flurry of activity, including wire transfers and drafts, took place.

These all went to associates of Jagoo's in Trinidad and the UK. Spencer used accounts belonging to other persons referred to as "nominees" to send the money via them to Jagoo.

Spencer also used others to create bank drafts to send money to Jagoo and open Bermuda bank accounts. ATM cards attached to those accounts were used for withdrawals made in the US for Jagoo.

Yesterday, Crown Counsel Cindy Clarke reiterated the prosector's belief that the arrival of the boat on the Island and the subsequent transactions, were all evidence of a drug trafficking component.

She said: "The evidence in the case before the jury strongly suggested that the predicate offence in question was a large scale importation of drugs into Bermuda from the Caribbean via the sailing vessel Julie.

"The defendant orchestrated a complex and cunning series of transactions aimed at multiple nominees overseas, utilising several innocent, as well as collaborative third parties... all designed to obscure the true nature of the underlying criminal activity and to avoid the attention of the authorities."

Defense lawyer Charles Richardson, however, argued that though his client continued to say he was innocent, the amount of money in question was minimal.

He said: "It can hardly be said that the movement of $160,000 over 12 months is anywhere near the upper echelons of what might have to be dealt with in our legislation. There was no certain evidence that he knew what Mr. Jagoo was doing. It was only a suspicion."

In imposing thte sentence, Chief Justice Richard Ground said he took money laundering as seriously as drug trafficking.