Police and Customs may have to return more than 300 seized gambling machines to their owners after one of the premises won a court order to have the machines immediately returned.

In what could turn out to be an embarrassing situation for the law enforcement agencies, 14 gaming machines were set to be returned to The Beach pub on Front Street last night after its lawyer Mark Pettingill alleged the warrants used to seize the goods had been illegal.

Mr. Pettingill went before Justice Archibald Warner on Friday night to seek an order to get the machines given back.

And he said last night that he would be going before the court for a number of other clients in the next few days in a bid to get their machines returned, too.

Mr. Pettingill said: "I got an order for The Beach to have all of its machines returned. They are returning them tonight (Monday), and it will get all of its money back, as well.

"We are saying that the warrants were illegal and that we want to have a hearing with regard to the whole issue. Until that time, they are returning the machines.

"That hearing will decide, effectively, whether the machines should have been taken and what the legal issues are with regard to the seizure and what was done."

He said he expected a date to be set for the hearing on Thursday this week.

Mr. Pettingill said, as of last night, only The Beach was getting its machines returned, however, he said he anticipated there would be others.

But he said he wished to also point out that nowhere near $1 million was taken from The Beach by Customs and Police, as reported by the Bermuda Sun on Friday.

He added: "That was totally untrue - pure fiction. It was not a substantial amount of money at all that was taken. It was even considerably less than $5,000.

"This is an issue that we want clearing up because it does not look good for my client."

Police and Customs began a sweep on a number of premises about ten days ago in an operation to find illegal spare parts that had been fitted to gaming machines.

Assistant Collector of Customs Larry Conn said Customs had noticed during the last year that huge quantities of spare parts had been imported into Bermuda and declared as being for the use of video machines.

However, he said Police and Customs suspected that many of the parts were destined to repair gaming machines, which is illegal under the Prohibition of Gaming Machines Act 2001.

Legislation dictates that owners of machines can continue to operate them, but cannot import new parts to repair and recondition them. The idea of the legislation was that gaming machines would eventually die out and become a thing of the past.

More than 70 Customs and Police officers raided premises with gaming machines over a number of days and seized the machines, taking them away for inspection.

At the last count, 336 gaming machines had been seized.

The Royal Gazette reported last week how the Seamont Exclusive mini casino in Smiths had filed a writ against Customs after it had machines taken.

Owner Neil Inchup's writ was in "the matter of a search warrant pursuant to the Revenue Act 1898 and in the matter of the Prohibition of Gaming Machines Act 2001".

And yesterday, another writ had been filed with Supreme Court by Vorhees Lightbourne, who operates the Swinging Doors nightclub.

Last night, assistant manager at The Beach Duncan Adams said he was unable to comment on the court order, but said he also wished to emphasise the point that $1 million was not taken from the premises.

He said: "We did not get $1 million taken out of the safe, I can tell you that much. We would be foolish to have that kind of money in here, obviously, for security reasons.

"It was only money from the machines and I would say it was probably less than $2,000."

Last night, Bermuda Police released a short statement saying that, indeed, the gaming machines taken from The Beach would be returned last night, along with the cash.

The statement said: "The Bermuda Police Service, in consequence of an order of the Supreme Court served today (Monday), are currently making arrangements to facilitate the return forthwith of gaming machines seized by Police."

However, Police spokesman Dwayne Caines later qualified his statement by saying machines would only be returned to The Beach as of last night.