Hamilton Businessman Goodwin Davano Spencer was sentenced to seven years in prison this morning.

Spencer, who runs Tuff Shoes and Mega Power Car Care Products, was convicted of 11 charges of money laundering by a majority verdict by a jury in November this year.

The offences involved $159,985 profit from drug trafficking on the part of Trinidadian Wayne Jagoo, and were committed between November 2004 and November 2005.

Wire transfers and drafts went to associates of Jagoo’s in Trinidad and the UK as part of the crime. The first five counts related to Spencer sending this money or assisting Jagoo with access to the money through bank wires.

Spencer used accounts belonging to other persons referred to as “nominees”, to send the money via them to Jagoo.

Count six relates to Spencer helping Jagoo access the funds by getting others to send bank drafts to him directly.

The rest of the charges stem from him helping Jagoo by getting people to open Bermuda bank accounts then giving him the ATM cards.

Spencer maintained the investigation was part of a conspiracy against him.

He said: “I want to first of all, I want to maintain my innocence of all these convictions. I hear all this talk of drugs and money laundering.

“My dealings with Jagoo where legitimate. We were involved in an import/export company where we were buying a boat to import goods.

“Everything, all that money I sent to Jagoo, was my money I had raised from private investors. All this here the investigations all found out, but they chose to ignore the facts of the case. It’s (the evidence) all circumstantial. I feel like I’m being victimised.”

Chief Justice Richard Ground said he took money laundering as seriously as drug trafficking and then sentenced Spencer to seven years behind bars effective immediately.