A new-bride was fined a total of $400 in Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to smuggling marijuana and drugs equipment into Bermuda.

Mizrahi Osnat, a 30-year-old New Yorker, apologised to the court for bringing in cannabis, a controlled drug and a cigarette making kit for its use.

The court heard that the second-time visitor had arrived on the Island by air on Friday. A search by Customs officers revealed the drugs and equipment. Osnat told the officers that she had forgotten they were in her possession.

Cindy Clarke, prosecuting, told the court that a "small" amount of drugs were found.

Magistrate Edward King told the woman that each count - importation of drugs and paraphernalia - carried a maximum fine of $10,000 or five years imprisonment or both.

He said : "I am not going to lock you up so don't start to think I'm going to send you to prison." "I apologise for what I did," Osnat told Mr. King. "I'm just here on vacation with my husband on honeymoon." King handed down the fines - $250 for importation and $150 for the drugs equipment. "That's a long, long way from $20,000," he told Osnat. He then criticised the charges, suggesting that the visitor should have been given a choice of simple possession or importation.

"In matters like this, put alternative charges. Give a person a chance to decide whether he's going to take the whole hog or the little piglet."

Simple possession would have carried a maximum fine of $1,000 or 12 months in prison.