A Southampton man who was pulled from a plane by armed Canadian police last September and denied entry to Canada has lost his case against the Bermuda Police in Supreme Court.

But Albert Santucci, 45, said he was going to appeal because he ?just wants his life back?.

Mr. Santucci said Police sent details of spent convictions to authorities abroad, which made it impossible for him to start mortuary studies in North America.

He said his convictions were spent after he graduated from Drug Court in August last year after successfully undergoing rehabilitation.

But, he said despite his now ?clean criminal record? a copy of his past convictions was faxed to Canada while he was in mid-flight.

According to the rules of Drug Court, his spent convictions can only be revealed with his permission.

Mr. Santucci said yesterday that his record was supposed to be expunged. He said the entire ?ordeal? has cost him close to $40,000 in legal fees and other expenses.

According to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1977 and Amendment Act Criminal Code Amendment Act, when Mr. Santucci completed Drug Court, any criminal convictions recorded against him in the records maintained by the Bermuda Police Department must be regarded as ?spent convictions?.

And only under certain conditions will references be made to spent convictions in proceedings before a Bermuda Court or tribunal.

Mr. Santucci received a letter from Minister of Health and Family Services Patrice Minors in August last year when he completed Drug Court which spelled out exactly what this meant ? that he was under no obligation to disclose to any person that he had a previous criminal conviction.

The letter states: ?Furthermore, it is an offence under the Act if any person having knowledge of an official record of a spent conviction releases the information to any other person, otherwise than in the course of their official duties.?

It also states that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1977 is effective only within Bermuda and did not bind the authorities of any foreign country to treat him as a rehabilitated person.

Mr. Santucci said yesterday that, despite the letter from Mrs. Minors, he was told that one conviction ? for receiving stolen goods ? would not be spent.

Because of this, he said, he still had a criminal record and could not travel.

?I did my three years in Drug Court and my rights have been violated with this still hanging over my head,? he said.

?I want to travel, but this has and will make it very difficult for me. The Police in Canada removed me from the flight last year by gunpoint and searched me for more than two hours. I even had to have X-rays and provide a stool sample. Do you have any idea how degrading that is??

He said he just wanted his record to be cleared ? as he had been promised when he entered Drug Court.

?Everyone has a past and I?m not denying mine, but they are making it hard for me to live the life I?m supposed to,? he said.

Mr. Santucci?s lawyer, Larry Scott yesterday said they were simply going to reissue a new writ since the previous one was ?struck out? by Justice Norma Wade-Miller.

Mr. Scott said what he was concerned with was how the same Minister who granted the certificates of rehabilitation of all convictions ? who?s attorney is the Attorney General who is instructed to draft the legislation ? did not appreciate that there is something wrong with the legislation when it causes the drug programme to work against the interests of the person they are trying to help.

?But the backdrop to all of this is whether the Governor instructed Police to send off the conviction to Immigration in Canada, as he can do under the Constitution, and did he do it properly under the law,? Mr. Scott said, adding that the Court is the only place where this can be aired, and he would ensure Mr. Santucci gets that opportunity.