Copies of an illicit video showing women exposing themselves while they dance in a Bermuda nightclub have been obtained by The Royal Gazette.

The circulation of the seedy film throughout the community prompted a Government minister to call for undercover cops to be sent into nightclubs to tackle ?loose conduct?, as concerns were raised about the moral values on the Island.

Most of the 90-minute recording ? shot on a hand-held video camera at Club Malabar, Dockyard ? shows close-ups of several young women dancing and cavorting provocatively.

Judging by the content of the music, the video appears to have been taken sometime in the last two to three weeks.

It?s existence has circulated for at least a week with it being publicly discussed at a Progressive Labour Party meeting at Vernon Temple AME Church in Southampton on Thursday. The most shocking close-up scenes ? lasting no more than five minutes ? include a woman in crotchless tights pleasuring herself and a woman gyrating towards the floor as the camera zooms in under her skirt.

At one point, a woman drops her jeans to her ankles and pulls her underwear to one side. The woman was standing inches from the camera with its bright spotlight on. She is later seen walking about the dance floor with her pants still at her ankles.

One woman wins a $300 cash prize from a man thought to be a party promoter for her efforts. A man understood to be the owner/manager of Club Malabar is seen supervising the searching of patrons at the beginning of the tape but a short time later is seen behind the bar serving customers.

The majority of the controversial film features the young men and women just dancing, while the camera frequently focuses on more intimate parts of the women?s bodies.

Shouts and screams can be heard on the recording, mixed with the loud reggae and rap music played at the nightclub. Dozens of men can be seen in the background rolling and smoking cigarettes.

The women seen exposing themselves in the film are clearly aware that a hand-held camera is being used to capture their actions ? although it is not clear whether they knew the video would become widely circulated in certain parts of the community.

Wayne Perinchief, Minister of Drug Control, spoke out Thursday after a member of the public mentioned the film was being distributed across Bermuda.

A woman, who asked not to be named, asked Mr. Perinchief what Government planned to do to halt the moral decay of the Island and restore spiritual values. The minister told the meeting that he would be raising the issue of such conduct in nightclubs at a future meeting of the steering committee recently set up to look at Bermuda?s drug problem.

And Mr. Perinchief said he hoped the committee would agree to make a recommendation to Police Commissioner George Jackson, that could lead to more officers going undercover in clubs and bars in a bid to combat the kind of behaviour caught on film at Club Malabar.