Top Bermuda detective Vic Richmond yesterday said Bermuda could be hooked into a new United Nations-sponsored hi-tech forensic lab for the Caribbean.

The planned forensic lab could mean faster and cheaper analysis of samples from Island crime scenes.

Det. Supt. Richmond said: "At the moment we rely on Canada -- although we have access to labs in Britain, it's expensive to make use of them.

"And in Canada, we have to wait in line for our exhibits to be dealt with, which can take several months.

"If the forensic unit gets set up in the Caribbean, if the turnaround is better and costs are not prohibitive, we would certainly consider using it.'' The length of time taken for hi-tech methods to be used in collecting evidence hit the headlines last year after the collapse of the Rebecca Middleton murder case.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police labs took months to process DNA evidence in the case.

In the meantime, then-Attorney General Eliott Mottley accepted Kirk Mundy's offer to plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact in the 1996 killing. Later attempts to re-charge Mundy with murder failed.

Murder accused Justis Smith walked free from court after a Supreme Court judge ruled there had been an abuse of process, there was insufficient evidence and no case to answer. The ruling is now being appealed.

Det. Supt. Richmond said the Island was visited by a UN representative a few months ago to discuss the crime lab project.

He said: "It's still being researched at the moment, but we would have access to it if we needed it.'' Det. Supt. Richmond was speaking in an exclusive interview with The Royal Gazette just after returning from a major international crime conference.

The think-tank in Georgetown, Guyana involved 16 countries.

And Det. Supt. Richmond's views were canvassed by regional media -- especially on white-collar and computer crime.

According to reports, his presentation impressed delegates from Caribbean Police forces so much, they asked for copies of Bermuda legislation on computer crime to take home.

Det. Supt. Richmond said: "We are quite advanced in some areas, certainly in the area of commercial crime, financial crime as we call it, and technological crime.'' Among the countries now studying Bermuda legislation are Dominica and Grenada.

The Island recently notched up its first conviction under computer misuse legislation when a man was found guilty of using someone else's codes to steal computer time.

Key issues discussed at the conference were increasingly sophisticated crooks using computers for criminal purpose and the need for a regional Interpol-style system to allow countries to track criminals across borders.

Det. Supt. Richmond is head of the six-department Specialist Criminal Investigation Division, which includes the Drugs Squad, the Commercial Crime Department, the National Intelligence Department and Special Branch.

He said: "We're now dealing with criminals who are highly sophisticated and we have to keep up with them to combat the kind of crime which is going on now, especially in the area of financial crime and drug-trafficking, too.'' Supt. Vic Richmond CONFERENCE CON