A painter who was caught with more than $200,000 worth of drugs and $11,000 in cash has told a jury he found the stash buried on the Railway Trail.

Dwayne Gilbert told the Supreme Court yesterday that he intended to use the heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine himself and had no intention of supplying it to anyone else.

The 53-year-old admitted that he was a drug addict saying: “I’m not proud to say that, it is what it is.”

But he maintained that he had discovered the drugs and money found in his possession and in his Southampton home in a knap sack wrapped in plastic on the trail close to his house.

The court has been told that Mr Gilbert was arrested on August 12, 2014 as he counted large quantities of money sat in his mother’s car in the Arnold’s car park on St John’s Road, Pembroke.

Drug officers later seized a large haul of heroin and cocaine from his bedroom that had been packaged in ziplock bags under a laundry basket.

Taking the stand yesterday Mr Gilbert acknowledged he had previous convictions for theft, breaking and entering and possessing drugs, and said he had been taking drugs since the “early 80s”.

“I have been through treatment four times,” he said. “But each time I relapsed and took drugs again.”

Mr Gilbert told jurors he had discovered the drug and cash stash two days before he was arrested.

“I was at home at Granaway Heights and I saw these lights on the Railway Trail, I figured it was drugs,” he said.

“I went and I check it out and found some disturbed ground. I dug it up and found a knap sack that was wrapped in plastic.

“I took it back home and locked myself in my bedroom. I opened up the package and saw it was drugs and money.

“Drugs was all I was really worried about. I was not sure what drugs they were, I could not really believe it was happening.

“I never prayed for drugs but I hoped one day this could happen for me.”

Asked by his lawyer Charles Richardson how long it would have taken to use all the drugs he had found Mr Gilbert said: “I have never really thought about it. It would have lasted a while.”

He added: “I don’t sell drugs. I would not have sold them. I would have used them all.”

Earlier the jury had been told that the total street value of all the drugs found on Mr Gilbert when he was arrested and at his home was over $200,000.

Mr Gilbert denies three charges of possessing controlled drugs with intent to supply, possessing drug-related equipment and possessing the proceeds of criminal conduct. The trial continues.

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