stealing cedar trees.

Richard Warner, 35 of Devonshire and Floyd Smith have denied cutting down and removing the trees valued at $4,420 from Blue Hole, Walsingham between October 1992 and February 1993.

But the hearing was delayed when Smith refused to face trial without his lawyer present.

Smith stormed out of the courtroom when Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis, after contacting the lawyer's officers, told him the trial would go ahead.

"Because of Mr. Smith's behaviour in court I am going on with this case in his absence as he has refused to remain in court and behave properly before the court,'' Mr. Francis said.

Prosecution witness Stephen DeSilva, an employee of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Parks took the stand.

He estimated that a total of about 2,400 board feet of wood valued at $48,000 was taken from the Government protected area.

On discovering the thefts, he took a "biscuit'' -- a two-inch thick cross section from every stump before calling the Police.

The "biscuits'', he said, could be used as fingerprints to identify the stolen wood by matching grain patterns.

He later contacted Anthony Madeiros, owner/manager of Bermuda Stripping and Refinishing Co. Ltd. who allowed him to examine his cedar stocks.

Gladwin Ming told the court that Warner, his brother-in-law, asked to borrow his van on February 22, 1993 and on another occasion that month to move furniture.

But Ming admitted he never examined the van and saw no evidence to show furniture had been transported in it.

Madeiros told the court he purchased cedar logs but kept a record of purchases which he thought suspicious, making a note of the date and initials of the seller.

He told the court that DeSilva came to see him on two occasions and examined the stocks of cedar. On the second occasion he returned with the "biscuits''.

The trial was adjourned to January.