A Sandys man continued to deny in Supreme Court yesterday that he had purposely shipped live ammunition to the Island in 2004.

A shipment of posters featuring gangster images, actor Al Pacino, the movies Scarface and The Godfather and gun victim rap superstar Tupac Shakur were neatly framed in display cases containing the additional adornment of fake guns, fake dollar bills and real bullets, the court heard.

Defendant Dion Bassett told the court he believed the bullets inside the display cases were also fakes. He was arrested by Police after the shipment from Miami was intercepted the live bullets discovered.

Giving evidence in Supreme Court, Bassett told a jury his version of the events that led to his shipment of 24 posters being seized as it arrived on the Island.

The 28-year-old, of Cambridge Road, has denied bringing ammunition onto the Island without a licence.

He told the court he had visited a friend in Miami in 2004 and during that trip decided to buy 24 posters from the Bamboo Cigars of Miami Beach shop with the intention of shipping them to Bermuda and re-selling them.

According to Bassett, he had asked the shop assistant if any of the items in the poster display cases, such as the guns, money and bullets, were real and had been told ?no?.

The posters cost $23.99 each and after adding shipping and import duties, Bassett had paid just over $1,000 to have the posters sent from Florida to Bermuda. He told the court he intended to re-sell the posters for between $75 and $90.

But when he arrived to collect his shipment at the docks in Bermuda a number of Police cars appeared and he was approached by officers who asked if he was Dion Bassett.

?The officer said I was under arrest under the Firearms Act. I can?t remember word for word what was said but I was upset. I felt sure it was a mistake and that they were making something out of nothing,? Bassett told the court.

?Then they took me to Prospect and into a room. A few of the boxes were open and a few were broken. That?s when they told me it was live ammunition.

?I said ?Is any of this stuff real? If it is I can take you to the place where I bought it in Miami?.?

Police informed Bassett they had already tested two of the bullets from the poster displays and found them to be live.

According to Bassett the posters had been boxed up by the shop but he had made separate arrangements to have them shipped to Bermuda after deciding the shipping costs the Miami shop charged were too high.

His friend in Miami, a Bermudian called Bilal Binns, took care of shipping the posters to Bassett, the court heard.

An invoice attached to the shipment and a similar invoice found at Bassett?s home address, stated Bassett was both the shipper and the receiver, which was unusual and one reason why the shipment aroused suspicion with the authorities.

Under cross-examination by Crown counsel Paula Tyndale, Bassett said he believed the guns, money and bullets within the poster display cases were fakes and had double-checked by asking the shop assistant who sold him the posters if that was the case.

?To cover myself I asked the guy in the shop if everything was fake, he said ?yes?,? said Bassett.

Ms Tyndale asked Bassett about his reaction when the Police had told him about the bullets, he said he had told them the guns were fake and then when they mentioned the bullets being real he was ?speechless?.

She asked him if he had said ?f***k? when Police then told him the bullets were real. Bassett said he did not remember that.

?You told Police ?I bought the posters in Miami. The guns are fake, you guys are jokers?,? said Ms Tyndale.

Bassett said he told the Police everything was fake.

The trial before Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons resumes today.