A Canadian university student has been sentenced to eight months in prison after he admitted importing cannabis worth some $40,000.

In Magistrates’ Court this morning, 23-year-old University of Toronto student Moses Adejumo pleaded guilty to bringing in 885 grams of the drug, after arriving in Bermuda on an Air Canada flight from Toronto last month.

Adejumo, a naturalised Canadian with Nigerian parents, was also charged with possessing with intent to supply the drugs.

Prosecutor Takiyah Burgess entered no evidence on the charges.

Defence attorney Arion Mapp painted Adejumo as a vulnerable young man who has made attempts to end his own life after years of battling severe depression. Combined with Adujumo’s other mental health issues, Mr Mapp argued his depression and long-standing unemployment made him “one of the most vulnerable people they could take advantage of.”

Asked who “they” were by Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner, Mr Mapp said Adejumo was “offered the opportunity to bring drugs into Bermuda by an unnamed person.”

“He was trying to cope with his problems and made a grave error,” said Mr Mapp, whose request for a psychological evaluation before sentencing was denied by Mr Warner.

Mr Warner accepted the submission that Adejumo was suffering from mental health problems but he said he saw no reason to order a psychiatric report because “at the end of the day it is blatant importation.”

Arriving in Bermuda shortly after noon on May 19, Adejumo was stopped by customs officers at the LF Wade International Airport after being sent for a secondary inspection of his luggage.

While examining Adejumo’s single black suitcase, customs officers found two brown square packages hidden under the suitcase’s cloth lining, which subsequent analysis showed to be 885 grams of cannabis with a street value of $44,250.

After being processed and detained, Adejumo appeared in Magistrates’ Court on May 22, when he was remanded into custody after denying the charges of importation and possession with intent to supply.