It was another day of disjointed and often dry legal testimony in the Supreme Court trial of a Canadian accused of immigration fraud.

Robert William Martyn 42, of Harrington Sound Road, Smith?s is charged with two counts of conspiracy to defraud the Chief Immigration Officer to obtain status for his father William Robert Martyn in September 2000.

He is also charged with knowingly uttering a false birth certificate in his own name on or about September 18, 2000. Yesterday British passport official, Andhar Sookdeo, from the High Commission in Ottawa, Canada said documents had shown the accused?s father had applied in November 1992 for a British passport.

In that application he had said his father ? the grandfather of the defendant ? was English and so was granted British citizenship by descent.

Yet later in the hearing Conyers, Dill and Pearman partner Peter Pearman, who had acted for Mr. Martyn as he applied for status for his father William Martyn, agreed documents given to him had said both the defendant?s father and his grandfather had been born in Bermuda.

Defence lawyer Saul Froomkin, through questioning both witnesses, made the point that a child could not be expected to know where his father had been born or had lived and would normally believe what the father told them.

Mr. Pearman also said he believed the accused?s father was the beneficiary of a property, held in trust, in Bermuda.

And the court heard that during the application Mr. Martyn?s estranged wife had drafted a letter with damaging accusations to the department of immigration including the claim that the defendant?s mother was seeking Bermudian status ? a claim Mr. Pearman said he believed to be untrue.

However, Mr. Pearman said he had never dealt directly with Mr. Martyn but had dealt with the defendant who is a lawyer for Westbury Limited owned by Canadian billionaire Michael DeGroote.

The court had already heard how an immigration official had been concerned whether the father had retained his domicile in Bermuda, which affected his son?s application for status.

That decision was later overruled by a Chief Immigration Officer Martin Brewer who regretted it after later seeing documents from the Registrar General in Canada which were then forwarded to Police.

The case in front of Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves is set to resume on Monday morning.