to others was fined $3,500 in Supreme Court on Thursday.

"The next time anybody comes to you telling you to change money, tell them to change it themselves,'' the Hon. Mr. Justice Ward told Dwayne Gino Phipps.

Phipps exchanged $21,000 Bermudian dollars into $20,910 US dollars between October 15, 1991 and March 21, 1992, Crown counsel Ms Sharon Kenny said.

In each of the seven transactions, Phipps said he needed the currency for a trip to the United States, which exempted him from the 10 percent purchase tax.

But none of the trips were ever taken, and Phipps later told Police he exchanged the funds for his older brother Marvin.

"He is my brother and if my brother or any of my sisters ask me to do something, I would just do it,'' he told Police. Ms Kenny said Phipps admitted knowingly making false statements, but "he did not know it was an offence to do so and had not read the declaration at the bottom of the forms.'' Phipps, represented by Mr. Perry Trott, was fined $500 on each of the seven counts and gave him one week to pay or go to prison for six months. Of the $3,500 fine, $2,100 is to go to the Bermuda Government as restitution for the evaded taxes.