The lawyer for a Bermuda Gas employee accused of obtaining money by false pretences from his former employers claimed yesterday that even if his client had not disclosed that he was involved in a sub-contracted company it did not mean he had inflated invoice prices.

Raymond Knight, 41, of Mount Hill Mews, Pembroke, was formerly the operations manager for in the gas cylinder refurbishment programme at Bermuda Gas.

He denies obtaining a total sum of $41,965.50 instead of $16,708 by tendering 18 different invoices which overstated the work completed of refurbishing gas cylinders by the subcontracted company he formed called Interface Technology.

Defence lawyer Mark Pettingill said during his closing submissions that Knight could have been ?slick? about his business deals when he formed Interface Technology and later when he informed Bermuda Gas that the company would be able to do the refurbishment job. He said it doesn?t mean that he ?padded the bills for the work done?.

When Knight proposed the company to Bermuda Gas in the fall of 1998 he never disclosed the fact that he was involved with Interface Technology. But he claimed he did not set up Interface Technology specifically for the refurbishment programme.

Mr. Pettingill added that there was physical evidence that the work was completed.

Earlier in the proceedings, Knight said during the two-year programme, Interface was successful with the refurbishment of gas cylinders. The safety and life span of the cylinders was part of the programme requirements.

Knight said that if work were not being done, it would be seen in the number of condemned cylinders.

?Before we started the programme the average number of cylinders being condemned on a monthly basis was approximately 322 cylinders. When we finished the programme at the end of the two years the number of condemned cylinders on average was approximately 42,? Knight explained.

He added the company had received positive feedback from Bermuda Gas and was $87,862.50 under the budget.

During his submissions, Mr. Pettingill said the Crown hadn?t proved that Knight had attempted to steal money from Bermuda Gas by merely comparing activity sheets from three employees with the invoices.

When Knight took the stand earlier he said he would receive activity sheets from Ernest Marshall, who oversaw and kept track of the work and the production in his capacity as a Bermuda Gas employee.

He said he didn?t receive the sheets every Friday and sometimes information was missing.

?I know that the information on the sheets was missing by comparing with the information I had recorded in my little book. The information would be, for instance, so many cylinders done by this person or so many done by that person,? Knight explained.

Mr. Marshall also verbally gave him the numbers he compared from his own book. Knight claimed Mr. Marshall was also a part-time worker for Interface.

Asked by Crown counsel Shade Subair where the book was now, he said he threw it away. He added that the ?little book? was not specifically for storing those numbers.

?Why didn?t you use that book to exonerate yourself to show that there wasn?t a difference between the invoices and the activity sheets?? Ms Subair asked.

Knight said: ?Because I panicked.?

During her submissions Ms Subair said: ?He?s attempted to explain those disparities by way of his little book.

?But he never went to his little book when these discrepancies were brought to him.?

She added: ?The deceit is obvious.?

Knight also made reference to another book kept by Mr. Marshall that was used to record the activity. Ms Subair said that book was also missing.

During her cross-examination, Ms Subair accused Knight of ?secretly? typing up the invoices at his home. Knight disagreed that he did the work in secret but couldn?t name anyone who knew what he was doing.

Knight also said he signed cheques payable from Bermuda Gas to Interface Technology in his capacity as operations manager at Bermuda Gas.

Ms Subair said: ?You deliberately signed them to cover up your involvement. You knew that Bermuda Gas would not have contracted with Interface had they known of your involvement.?

Magistrate William Francis will give his judgment on Friday.