The Crown is expected to close its case against Herbert Alan Williams this morning after it calls its final witnesses.

Williams, 43, of Harbour Road, Paget, is charged with knowingly allowing Richard Graham Thomas, 40, to use his basement to cultivate 75 cannabis plants in an operation that used transformers, powerful lights, an extractor fan and a water hose.

Thomas, of White Sands Road, Paget, pleaded guilty on Monday to growing the cannabis plants in Williams' home. He will be sentenced this morning.

In a Police interview, Williams said that Thomas approached him around October 1993 and asked him if he had someplace that he could use to store his tools.

"I told him I had a workshop at home,'' Williams said. "I declined to receive rent for it and I had no access to it.'' Williams, who owns Williams Trading in Pembroke, said that when Police came to search his home on January 17, 1994 he did not have a key for the basement door because he only used the outer portion of the basement which had been divided into two sections by a locked partition door.

Consequently, Williams told the narcotics officers that if they wanted a key to the partition they needed to go to Thomas' home.

When officers found another key in a basket in the kitchen that also opened the partition door, Williams said he was "shocked and surprised'' and he told Police that Thomas had placed it among the other keys.

Williams said he only had access to the freezer in the outer section of the partition and Thomas was solely responsible for the inner portion.

When asked during the interview why he did not rent the room to Thomas who was also using the electricity, Williams said he expected that the electricity bill would not increase by that much.

He said that since he installed an air conditioning system in his home his power bill was between $220 and $240. Before that it was between $180 and $190.

Williams said he never heard any sounds from the extractor or the other four fans or saw any of the lights that Thomas had placed in the basement.

He said he knew Thomas had installed an extractor fan to help alleviate the dampness in the basement.

Williams said he and Thomas had smoked cannabis together occasionally but he said could not remember the most recent episode.

He said he never knew the plants were in his basement until Police showed them to him. However he admitted that Thomas gave him the 2.97 grams of cannabis Police found in the kitchen during the search.

The trial continues this morning before Puisne Judge the Hon. Mrs. Justice Wade. Mr. Khamisi Tokunbo appears for the Crown while Mr. Alan Dunch appears for the defendant.