Admitted drug smuggler Anthony Quinton Beach walked out of court yesterday after a judge addressed a breach of his probation order.

But he was immediately arrested by Police who had been waiting outside for the proceedings to be completed.

Assistance Justice Charles-Etta Simmons had called the hearing after news reports surfaced saying that Beach had been found incoherent in a car parked outside Spanish Point and had to be rushed to hospital last week. Three days earlier Justice Simmons had sentenced heroin addict Beach to two years' probation for his part in a drug smuggling operation.

At a hearing yesterday, Vinette Graham-Allen, representing the Crown pointed out to the court that breaching probation had been made a specific offence by amendments to the criminal code and carried a two year prison sentence but that an investigation had to take place by Police and charges laid.

That prompted defence lawyer Larry Mussenden to say that the law had been drafted in a manner which could affect his client's constitutional rights and have a chilling effect on confidentiality between Probation Services and their clients.

What a client tells to his probation officer is not normally preceded by a caution but could now become the subject of a Police investigation, he argued.

"Does that send a signal to anyone on probation that it's better not to speak to the probation officer because it may be used against him?"

Assistant Justice Simmons said it was up to the Department of Public Prosecutions and the Police to decide whether to proceed with criminal charges.

"He has admitted to his probation officer that he has committed a breach," she said.

"According to the law, despite what he said, he has not committed a breach," Mr. Mussenden said.

"By his own admission he has breached a term of his probation order - don't tell me I do not have the power to do something about that," responded Assistant Justice Simmons.