A man who was sent to jail almost six years ago was forced to give up his car after Magistrate William Francis ruled that the car had been used for drug trafficking.

Donald Antroi DeSilva, 40, of Green Acres Road, Devonshire was arrested on July 27, 1998 at St. John?s Field where cannabis was seized from his car.

At the time he was sentenced to three years in prison.

The Department of Public Prosecutions applied to seize the car because it appeared to have been used for drug trafficking.

In his judgment yesterday, Mr. Francis said: ?The cannabis was seized by Police officers from inside that car. I find that the evidence makes me feel that, more likely than not, DeSilva was using that car as a tool in drug trafficking.?

But DeSilva had a chattel mortgage from the Bank of Bermuda on the car and Mr. Francis said there was no evidence to show that the bank had knowledge that the DPP would file an application for the forfeiture.

?I feel it would be wrong therefore to make any order that would adversely affect the bank?s security,? he said.

?However, I also feel that this car was so clearly being used as a tool for drug trafficking that it should be forfeited to the Crown.?

Mr. Francis ordered that the car be given to the DPP but allowed the bank to take the car and pay the difference to the DPP on the bank?s interest and the value of the car.

?I therefore order that this car be forfeited to the Crown, subject to the right of the Bank of Bermuda Ltd. to redeem the said car from the Crown upon payment to the Crown of the difference between the current value of the car and the value of the bank?s interest in the car.?

DeSilva shouted obscenities at Crown counsel Graveney Bannister as he left the courtroom but eventually calmed down after conferring with his lawyer Richard Horseman.