A major Bermuda drug importer set up a ?sham? trust to hide his home from authorities, prosecutors claimed yesterday.

A court heard Kirk Roberts used the trust to ?shield? his real financial interest in the property, should he get caught drug trafficking and then attempts were launched to claw back any assets funded by crime cash.

Prosecutors are attempting to seize up to $2 million from Roberts ? nearly four years after he was convicted of conspiring to import cannabis worth an estimated $1.9 million into the Island.

The Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is seeking to claim the sum from the champion powerboat racer under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Detailed arguments from both sides in the civil case continued to be heard at Supreme Court yesterday.

DPP lawyers say Roberts benefited to the tune of about $2 million from trafficking, although his solicitor, Kamal Durrant, has told the court that his client never made any money from crime.

In a day of often complex financial evidence, the court heard documents showed that a property at West Side Road, Sandys, valued at about $640,000, was transferred by Roberts? parents to trustees in 1999 and no cash changed hands.

Roberts has argued that the house was never legally his and could not be touched anyway, because it was in the trust benefiting 21 people including Roberts and his wife.

Senior Crown counsel Paula Tyndale, however, argued that Roberts has sole interest in the property and the trust ? often set up to provide long-term financial security for children ? was a ?sham? to defeat proceeds of crime laws. She said the reality was the property was owned by Roberts and his wife and although the trust may have had 21 beneficiaries, but they were the only two who actually benefited.

Prosecutors also asked how Roberts managed to pay for building work estimated at costing $600,000 at the property, when a loan for less than half that amount was taken out.

Mr. Durrant, responding to the DPP submissions, said Roberts? interest in the property could not be considered a ?realisable asset?. He said the conditions of the trust stated that Roberts could live in the house rent-free as long as he made mortgage payments of about $2,400.

He denied the trust was merely an attempt to hide the property from authorities chasing proceeds of crime, and said the trust was a way of tying up a loan and the value of the property.

And he said building the house cost about $100,000, not $600,000 as the DPP alleged.

Roberts was jailed for ten years in 2002 for conspiracy to import 200 pounds of cannabis into the Island in 2000.

The drugs have never been recovered and prosecutors say they should be classed as an asset. His trial judge said he played a central role in a complex conspiracy to have drugs brought into Bermuda.

At an earlier hearing, Ms Tyndale said that Roberts, speaking after his arrest following the cannabis bust, told the German sailboat owner who later testified against him in court: ?It?s cool. I?ve not lost anything. You just need to keep calm for a while.?

The civil case was yesterday adjourned until a date to be fixed in the week starting March 20.

An updated valuation of the West Side Road property is due to be carried out. And when legal submissions are completed Puisne Judge Ian Kawaley will decide how much the drug importer should be forced to pay.

Roberts is still in jail and appeared in court yesterday flanked by two prison guards.

His parents, Barbara and William Roberts, were convicted of possession, handling and possession with intent to supply 30 pounds of cocaine in 1997. They both received 12-year sentences and were released after doing one third of their time.