The Hon. Mr. Justice Ward imposed the sentence on Alexander Troy Brangman, who had earlier pleaded guilty to importing cocaine worth $272,500.

Speaking to Mr. Ward before sentencing, Brangman said: "I know I hurt a lot of people, especially my children.

"I really feel bad for my children because I was a big role model in their lives and they looked up to me with the highest respect... My children, I think they really need me. I understand I am going to get time and while I'm there I am going to have to make the best of a bad situation.

"But if I can get the maximum benefit of time, then my children would appreciate that.'' Brangman, who has been in custody since his arrest in May, 1993, then read a poem from his daughter called Absent Father. In part, it said: "Yesterday you were here, now you're gone. But though it's not death, I feel the need to mourn ...

"You're always on my mind, because you're my role model ...'' Brangman was arrested in May, 1993 after he picked up a cassette/disc player at the Airport.

"Concealed inside was 1.14 kilograms of approximately 58 percent pure cocaine which would represent a street value of $272,500 if sold in half-gram wraps,'' Crown counsel Mr. Brian Calhoun told the court.

When questioned by Police, Brangman said he was acting as an agent for another person. He told them he had earlier smuggled $27,000 out of Bermuda to pay for the cocaine and that others had concealed the drug in the cassette player to send to Bermuda.

Brangman was to pick up the cassette player, for which he was to be paid $8,000.

Defence lawyer Mr. Richard Hector said Brangman had tried to help Police snag the person he was acting for. But Det. Sgt. Steven Lightbourn, the investigating officer, said no other prosecution had occurred as a result of Brangman's help and that none was anticipated.

Mr. Calhoun noted that Brangman's social inquiry report said he had resorted to crime because of mounting bills, two years of unemployment and great pressure at home.

He urged the Chief Justice not to be swayed by that personal plight, rather to focus on the plight Brangman's crime would have imposed on Bermuda society.

Mr. Hector, in a 50-minute mitigation speech, emphasised the crime was Brangman's first. To be 30 and without a record was "an achievement''.

Brangman had been married six years, with two children -- aged four and nine -- in Bermuda and with a 13-year-old in Florida.

Before becoming unemployed for 21 years, Brangman had continuously worked in construction. He, like many others, had become a victim of the recession.

Mr. Hector said Brangman found himself in a desperate position with about $10,000 in rent and bills owing. He was no longer contributing to the household, his wife was pressuring him and he had few skills to secure alternate employment.