The courts are to be given tough new penalties to crack down on drugs offences including doubling magistrates' jailing powers and introducing million dollar fines in Supreme Court.

Attorney General Larry Mussenden has also proposed allowing cases to be heard by a judge rather than jury where there is witness or jury intimidation. Jailing drug traffickers for life if they are caught three times has also been floated.

He said: “Our society has taken a stand against drugs and drug trafficking which undermines the family structure, ruins lives, causes untold crime in the island and destroys the fabric of community.

“Government will table legislation this term to stamp its disapproval of drug use and trafficking that will rewrite the sentencing provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Act and to modernise the Act.”

The amendments are:

-- Magistrates' sentencing powers will be increased from five to ten years imprisonment and from a fine of $10,000 to $500,000 or three times the street value of the drugs.

-- Supreme Court fines will be set at a maximum of $1 million or three times the street value of the drugs

-- Unpaid fines will bring in a consecutive period of imprisonment until the fine is paid

-- Hard drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin will have a mandatory 50 percent increase in prison sentence

-- If a defendant has drugs over a set weight limit, he will be deemed to have those drugs for the purposes of possession with intent to supply and the defendant will have to argue that it was not for supply

-- All drug trafficking offences will have to be served consecutively to offences of violence or weapons on the same charge sheet or indictment.

Senator Mussenden added: “I wish to engage in wide community discussion on a ‘three strikes and you're out' approach to drug trafficking which means that after three drug trafficking convictions all assets will be forfeited immediately and a person will be sent to prison for life.”

He said the scheme had worked in the States and elsewhere.

Following the collapse of recent cases Government is considering creating a new serious offence of witness intimidation throughout the investigation and court stage.

And statements will be admitted in evidence to the jury if the witness is in fear of coming to court while witnesses will also be allowed to give evidence by video link if they fear coming to court.

Government is also considering letting cases be heard by a judge alone instead of by a jury where there is witness or jury intimidation, Mr. Mussenden said, adding: “These methods all work in other jurisdictions such as the UK and in some Caribbean countries.”

Government will also table legislation this summer giving protection to vulnerable witnesses, particularly in child abuse and sexual assault cases.

“This will involved the mandatory use of a screen or a video link between a secure location and the Courtroom. That way the victim does not have to be in the presence of the defendant at trial.”

Sen. Mussenden said Government would also bring in a Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), based almost totally on the UK act, which codifies the amount of time defendants can be held in cells before being charged and how statements can be taken from them.

He said: “This is a signature piece of legislation that without doubt will be the most important piece of legislation to be ever enacted in the area of our criminal justice system.

“PACE will revolutionise the method of Policing in Bermuda, the treatment and questioning of suspects in custody and, which has as its aims, the balance between the Police and the rights of the accused.”

The bill is likely in June, alongside a Bail bill covering what grounds are admissible by the Crown for refusing bail and conditions for bail. There will be no bail for murder.

Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz said those bills had been hanging around for years and would only strengthen the hand of the defendant at a time when there was concern about criminal cases collapsing.

He said the Progressive Labour Party had attacked the Opposition when it sought to give the Prosecution the right to appeal a verdict.

He said: “One of the Middleton cases failed because the judge made a bad decision and there was no right of appeal.”

He found it ironic that Government had put up a big defence of the ordinary jury when it abolished special juries recently but was now considering doing away with juries for some trials and giving all the power to judges.

This too had been suggested by the UBP's John Barritt, said Mr. Moniz but had been ignored until now.

Mr. Mussenden said Government will soon table amendments to the Criminal Code that will re-write all of Bermuda's stealing offences using provisions from the UK's theft act.

He said: “This new legislation will modernise our law and cover all kinds of stealing, thefts and frauds.”