A drug user caught hiding crack cocaine in his pants has been fined $800.

Shaki Weeks, 28, had a twist containing the substance after Police spotted him acting suspiciously outside the Spinning Wheel, Court Street, at 10.30 p.m. on Saturday, August 5, last year.

He admitted the charge at Magistrates' Court yesterday, and his suggestion that it was a "little bit of cocaine" failed to find favour with Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo.

Crown counsel Robert Welling told the court officers had approached Weeks after noticing a smell of burning cannabis near the nightclub.

Mr. Welling said Weeks appeared to place something in the crotch of his pants and then started to fidget. He was taken to Hamilton Police Station, where officers searched him and found the brown paper twist. Tests showed it contained 1.06 grams of crack cocaine, which was 68 percent pure.

Weeks told the court: "That little bit of cocaine I had was for my own use. I was inside the club when the Police came. I wasn't outside on the street or nothing."

Passing sentence, Mr. Tokunbo replied: "A little bit doesn't matter. The fact you are inside the club doesn't matter."

Weeks, of Friswell's Hill, Devonshire, denied two further charges, of possession of cocaine with intent to supply and possession of cannabis resin, in Pembroke, on June 22 last year. He will return to court for a trial on August 21.