A Canadian lawyer convicted of fraudulently gaining Bermudian status has lost his appeal.

Robert William Martyn, 44, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence last year after a jury found him guilty of illegally obtaining status for his father and by extension himself.

His lawyer, Saul Froomkin Q.C, dropped an appeal against the sentence after the conviction for conspiracy to defraud was upheld by the Court of Appeal on Friday.

Martyn, of Harrington Sound Road, Smith?s, committed the offence by using false birth and marriage certificates to advance the premise that his grandfather was of Bermudian birth.

Had the documents presented to the Immigration Department in 2000 been genuine, they would have led to the lawyer and his father obtaining Bermudian status.

The crown said Martyn masterminded the crime. His defence case was that his father had been dishonest, and that he was a victim of this rather than a party to the fraud.

Mr. Froomkin Q.C advanced 16 grounds of appeal on Martyn?s behalf. These included that the trial judge, Puisne Justice Carlisle Greaves, erred in his directions to the jury, summed up unfairly, and unduly weighted his directions in favour of the prosecution.

The appeals panel - comprised of President Justice Edward Zacca, and Justices Sir Anthony Evans and Sir Charles Mantell - rejected this.

They also dismissed a challenge related to the admissibility of birth, death, and marriage certificates as evidence during the trial.