armed bank robbers.

The nine-woman, three-man jury deliberated for approximately two hours before rejecting pleas of innocence from Michael Eugene Dillas and Rupert Elroy Archibald for the hold-up and theft of some $37,500 from the Bank of Bermuda in Somerset last year.

Both Dillas and Archibald were found guilty on three counts of armed robbery against two bank tellers and using firearms. An alternative charge of carrying firearms was dropped.

The two men sat silently as the jury foreman announced the decision, but whispered and smiled to each other as Chief Justice Austin Ward dismissed the jury.

And Mr. Justice Ward deferred an application by Dillas' lawyer Victoria Pearman for a social inquiry report until sentencing today.

Later, Archibald -- while handcuffed to a Prison officer -- spat at the face of a Royal Gazette photographer as he left the courthouse.

Earlier in summation, Crown counsel Brian Calhoun described the case for the prosecution as "perhaps one of the strongest cases a Bermuda jury has ever had''.

"How could it possibly be stronger?'' he asked the jury. "Other than the men taking off their masks and looking into the camera?'' On April 9 last year, Dillas, Archibald, Yusef Ameerbakka DeSilva and a fourth man alleged to be Travis Dill, rode a pair of motorcycles to the Somerset branch of the Bank of Bermuda.

While Dillas stayed outside the bank and guarded the motorcycles, DeSilva burst through the main doors and pointed a .25 calibre pistol in the face of security guard Gary Hunter.

In conflicting testimonies, DeSilva claimed he only cocked the gun, but Hunter said he believed the masked man pulled the trigger twice.

"If somebody sticks a gun in your face, you're in a state of shock,'' Mr.

Calhoun pointed out. "And if there is a clicking noise, you may well think they are pulling the trigger.'' Video footage seen earlier in the trial then showed DeSilva leaving the bank briefly and returning with Archibald and a man suspected to be Dill.

Archibald fired a warning shot from a huge .357 Magnum and stood guard at the door as DeSilva and Dill leaped over a counter and emptied two cashier tills.

Seconds later the gang fled the bank and rode the motorbikes to a waiting Boston Whaler-type boat on East Shore Lane.

However, a high-speed Police launch soon caught up with the much slower vessel and followed the robbers across the Great Sound to the Riddell's Bay area.

Minutes after ditching the boat on the rocky shoreline, DeSilva was caught by a motorcycle officer.

And Emergency Response Team officers armed with sub-machine guns discovered Dillas and Archibald lying on their backs in a wooded area of the Riddell's Bay Golf Course. Dill was apprehended by Police a day after the robbery, but later released on bail.

Robbery jury unanimous in reaching guilty verdicts During the trial, a Police witness disclosed Dill was no longer on the Island.

Numerous items from the failed robbery -- including guns, money, clothing, masks and a radio scanner -- were found scattered near Archibald and Dillas.

And gunshot residue was later found on their clothing.

"Circumstantial evidence is of the most powerful evidence that can exist because it doesn't lie,'' said Mr. Calhoun.

The Crown's case was also strengthened by DeSilva's surprise testimony against his accomplices.

Mr. Calhoun defended the convicted bank robber's credibility against attacks by the defence team of Ms Pearman and Archibald Warner.

"As the trial was about to begin, he (DeSilva) did what we all hope somebody does in prison,'' he said. "He reflected upon his life and where he was going.

"Was he going to stay solid and cool with the boys? Or was he -- because of concern for his daughter -- going to go straight, or as he said, `take it like a man and testify'? "Can anyone say that Desilva's reflection was wrong?'' Mr. Calhoun asked.

Dillas and Archibald both maintained that on the day of the incident, they had simply gone to the Riddell's Bay Golf Course to smoke marijuana and talk.

They admitted they had hidden in the bushes when Police arrived, but said it was because they believed someone had alerted the authorities about their presence.

Archibald also claimed he believed the Police might shoot him.

But Mr. Calhoun dismissed the alibi.

"I would hope that this story is offensive to your common sense,'' he said to the jury. "It doesn't cost them anything to give it a shot. You never know, the jury might buy it.'' In response, Ms Pearman argued there was no evidence independent of DeSilva -- despite extensive scientific testing -- to show that either Dillas or Archibald were at the bank, wore the clothing found at the scene, or were in the escape boat.

And she said the area where the two men were found was a much larger expanse than the Crown had indicated.

"We know that there was a robbery, there has been no dispute about that,'' she said.

"The issue is, who besides the convict Yusef DeSilva was involved?''