Legal arguments took up all of yesterday in the ongoing Supreme Court trial of a Canadian man charged with conspiring to fraudulently obtain his father?s Bermudian status and ultimately his own.

The defence, led by Saul Froomkin QC and supported by Victoria Pearman, will open its case on Monday morning in front of Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves.

Robert William Martyn, 42, of Harrington Sound Road in Smith?s, is accused of conspiring with his father William Robert Martyn to defraud the Minister of Home Affairs by helping to submit two false documents as part of his father?s status application between May 28, 2000 and February 12, 2001.

The false documents were the father?s birth certificate and the marriage certificate of the defendant?s grandparents, both of which were altered to say that the defendant?s grandfather, Melville William Martyn, was born in Bermuda in 1899.

The falsely stated birthplace of the grandfather ? who was actually born in England ? served as a fraudulent basis for the father?s status application, and by extension the son?s.

The crux of the Crown?s argument, and one which they have to prove in order to win a conviction, is that the defendant knew the documents he helped submit as part of his father?s application were false.

The defence is maintaining their client was only three years old at the time of his grandfather?s death in 1965 and he could not have been expected to know for sure where his grandfather was born.

The false documents, they say, were submitted in good faith.