Government began its bid yesterday to overturn a Supreme Court order to pay costs and damages after a judge ruled last year gaming machines had been illegally seized.

Government took the units in a crackdown on suspected illegal spare parts but Justice Archibald Warner ruled the warrants were unlawful.

If successful the appeal could save Government a six-figure sum. But defence lawyer Mark Pettingill, who is representing some of the bar owners hurt by the bust, said the seizure was over-the-top and wrong in law.

Mr. Pettingill told The Royal Gazette: “It's a bit like finding out there is an 250cc motorbike on the island and impounding every bike in Bermuda until you find it.”

Under the Prohibition of Gaming Act 2001, it is not illegal to operate a gaming machine, but it is illegal to import and fit them with new spare parts. Customs noticed a huge amount of dual-use spare parts being imported and declared for use in video machines, but suspected they were being used for gaming machines.

They took 300 machines and raided a number of premises, including Freddies Bar in St. George's, The Beach, The Plush, The Porch and Lucky Strike.

Government lawyer Phil Perinchief implied before the Court of Appeal yesterday that Assistant Justice Archibald Warner had been biased when he found in favour of the businesses last year. However that contention was then dropped after the bench pointed out this argument, if successful, could lead to a re-trial, which if Government lost, could land them with even higher damages.

The bench also chided Government for not producing the original warrants used to seize the machines.

Mr. Perinchief said requests to customs, whom he was representing, had gone unheeded. However after lunch the warrants for The Beach and Plush were produced but others were still missing.