A grandfather is facing the prospect of jail after being convicted of possessing cannabis with intent to supply and equipment for preparing that drug.

George Lambert had been cleared on Friday, along with three other men, of conspiring to import cannabis to Bermuda in a plot involving a yacht named Regulus.

Five people were originally accused of the conspiracy at the start of the case seven weeks ago. However, Anthony Stanley Martin, 42, from Jamaica, was acquitted on May 3 after the Crown offered no further evidence against him.

The jury was told by Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simons on May 11 that they need not consider the case against another defendant, Tristan Codrington, any further.

She went on to direct the jury to clear Gladwyn Simmons, Ricardo Tucker and Lambert on Friday afternoon at the conclusion of the Crown's case. All of these directions were given after lengthy legal arguments in the absence of the jury.

However, 53-year-old charter boat captain Lambert's hopes that his name would be cleared entirely were dashed yesterday when he was convicted on the separate possession and drug equipment charges.

These related to the discovery of the drug during a Police raid on his home on March 13. 2004. The exact amount was not specified to the jury. The officers also found five buckets, an electric saw and plastic wrappings intended for use in preparing cannabis. Both the buckets and the saw had residue of the drug on them.

Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney had told the jury in his closing speech yesterday: "From the evidence, it would appear that wherever he got the cannabis from, he had a large quantity of it at his residence."

Urging the jury to accept the Crown's argument that there had been so much cannabis that Mr. Lambert needed the buckets to store it in, Mr. Mahoney said they still reeked of the drug in the courtroom.

"Even two years later you might be tempted to get high on the smell," he told the jury.

A self-confessed cannabis smoker, Mr. Lambert had pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to possession of a joint that was found by Police in his bedroom at his Scaur Lane, Sandys home. However, he denied having any knowledge of the drugs that formed the more serious possession with intent charge.

His lawyer, Elizabeth Christopher, said in the closing speech for the defence: "What evidence is there of intent to supply those drugs? There are all sorts of questions which have not been answered in this case."

However, the jury returned majority guilty verdicts after considering the evidence for almost three hours yesterday afternoon. Mrs. Justice Simmons remanded Mr. Lambert in custody, to be brought again before the court at the arraignments session next month.

She thanked the five men and seven women on the jury for their role in the trial, which she described as a "long and arduous experience" for them.

She explained that she had had to protect them from the decisions made in their absence that resulted in her directions on the other defendants "so you could deal with the continued consideration of other people".

She added: "I don't like to send the jury away confused. We all rely on the criminal justice system. The way it is, you have to accept from me (that) when a judge makes a decision about not telling you about something that's gone on in your absence it's done within the law."