A man accused of a heroin plot yesterday took the stand in his own defence.

Luke Hill, 47, denies conspiring to import about 80 grams of heroin — estimated to be worth more than $230,000.

He is also accused of using the bank accounts of two other men to launder the money.

Prosecutors have alleged that Mr Hill had John Thompson travel to Africa to collect the drugs and smuggle them to Britain, where they were subsequently sent to Bermuda in a series of ten packages with labels written in Mr Hill’s handwriting.

Taking the stand at Supreme Court in his own defence, Mr Hill said that he was a plumber and electrician who also collected rent from several apartments he owns.

He added that he also provided an “exchange service” for foreign workers who wanted to get Bermudian money exchanged for US bills, but who did not have bank accounts.

“I would buy US cash from the banks and sell it out to people for a price,” he said. “They don’t have bank accounts and they want to send money to their families and a lot of them use Western Union.

“I made arrangements with some of the workers I know to get them US money so they can send it to their families without going to Western Union. If they gave me $1,000, I would probably charge $115.

“I would also do it for myself as well because I travel to England. I could buy pounds, but with the exchange rate by taking US dollars to the UK I would probably get about £100 more.”

He explained that he would occasionally use the bank accounts of his uncle, Burland Hill, and Ernest Mello, to carry out the transactions — otherwise he would only be able to withdraw $2,000 a day due to card limits.

Mr Hill said that in 2010 he hired John Thompson to whitewash his roof, but had been unable to pay him at the time because he had not collected rent yet. When he did have the money, he could not find Mr Thompson.

The following January, he said he received a phone call from Mr Thompson, who was asking for the money owed to be sent to him in Britain.

“I told him I was travelling to the UK and I would bring up the money when I came,” Mr Hill said. “He made it clear he needed the money, like, yesterday.”

He told the court he sent Mr Thompson $1,000 via Western Union and, during his time in England, arranged to meet Mr Thompson at Victoria Station. When Mr Thompson arrived, Mr Hill noticed that his hand was bandaged.

The men went to a pub within the building and, after a few drinks, he said Mr Thompson pulled a set of envelopes from a bag and asked if he would write some addresses for him.

“At the time I didn’t think nothing of it, but now I feel kind of stupid that I did do it,” Mr Hill said.

During cross examination, prosecutor Alan Richards suggested that this version of events was “utter rubbish”, noting the varying names and addresses that were written on the envelopes as the sender.

Highlighting one example, he said: “You are not a stupid man. You must have thought to yourself, this is very strange. This man, who is on his way back to Bermuda shortly, is asking me to write addresses for him, and also from someone called Kim Weirs, and he’s asking me to write, ‘I love you sweetie’ on the back of the envelope, which you say didn’t contain anything in it.”

Mr Richards noted that more than one letter had been addressed to the same person, with different names given for the sender, questioning if that would have struck him as odd.

Mr Hill responded: “Probably after the alcohol I didn’t even remember.”

Mr Richards suggested that Mr Hill knew what the envelopes would be used for because he was responsible for organising Mr Thompson’s trip to Africa to collect the heroin and bring it to Britain, but the accused said this was not true.

On the subject of the money exchanges, Mr Richards noted that Mr Hill had used his own account to exchange about $25,000, but during the same period he had used his uncle’s account to exchange about $70,000. Meanwhile, $56,000 was exchanged using Mr Mello’s account in just three months.

The prosecutor also questioned Mr Hill’s claim that he would use the other’s accounts to get around the daily withdrawal limit, pointing out numerous dates where his account was not used but the others were.

Mr Hill said that he had lost his bank card on several occasions, denying the suggestion that he was using the other accounts to distance himself from the transactions.

Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves asked why Mr Hill would want to exchange his own money to US cash before changing it into British pounds, questioning how paying exchange rates twice would result in cost savings.

Mr Hill replied: “Maybe my math is wrong, but I felt I was making a profit.”

• It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding court cases. This is to prevent any statements being published that may jeopardise the outcome of that case.