The trial of a 22-year-old man who was found to have a two-and-a-half-inch folding pocket knife continued yesterday, as the court heard more definition arguments regarding whether the knife is considered a bladed article or not.

Clifton George Powell Ross appeared in Magistrates? Court for a second time yesterday stemming from his arrest on January 29 when Police found a folded pocket knife in his pocket outside Ozone Nightclub. The man was not involved in an altercation at the time, but was stopped because he was attempting to sneak a bottle of alcohol into the club.

P.c. Brian Macnab, who arrested Ross that evening, said the man told Police it was his work knife.

Ross is a line maintenance technician for CableVision and his boss, Michael Jones, described him as a dedicated, reliable and hardworking young man who often worked seven days a week. Mr. Jones also told the court that many people use personal knives on the job and that Ross had been working that Saturday until 5 p.m.

Once Crown counsel Oonagh Vaucrosson closed the prosecution?s case after calling the two witnesses defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher made an application that there was no case to be answered. She argued that the knife in question was not a part of the bladed law legislation because it was only two-and-a-half-inches long and folded closed.

Ms Vaucrosson then argued that under common law the knife was a part of the legislation because it had a mechanism that allowed the blade to remain open. Bermuda copied the legislation, word for word, from the England legislation. The only difference is that Bermuda?s penalties are much stiffer with a guilty verdict resulting in a mandatory prison sentence of three to five years.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner questioned the Commonwealth distinction regarding the locking mechanism.

?I used to play with knives when I was a boy,? he said. ?I am not an expert but if you look at all the folding knives in this jurisdiction they all have what we called a spring. That spring allows it to stay rigid. If it was not there the blade would simply slick open and close. I cannot figure how there can be a distinction between there being a mechanism that holds it in place or a spring.?

He questioned how a knife with a spring would not result in incarceration and one with another type of locking mechanism would lead to incarceration.

Ms Christopher argued that Bermuda?s courts did not need to ?throw the net as wide? as English courts because the penalties were higher. She argued that the UK case the Crown was using to illustrate precedent resulted in the man, who was guilty of having a ?locked? knife, being absolutely discharged. She argued that her client, on the other hand, would have to spend considerable time in prison if he was found guilty under the same legislation.

Mr. Warner said that her first application was rejected because there was a case to be answered but adjourned the trial until Thursday while he considered if Bermuda?s penalties meant a folding knife with a locking mechanism, which in the UK is considered part of the bladed article legislation, should not be part of the legislation in Bermuda.