The tax affairs and professional status of a former Bermuda Housing Corporation Property Officer accused of a $1.3 million fraud were called into question by the Crown Friday.

Supreme Court has previously heard how Terrence Smith and his wife applied for a $600,000 mortgage to buy their luxury home in Tee Street in July 2000.

He listed his employer as the BHC, his occupation as architect, and named a separate business called Architectural Design Services. He and his wife ? a ?cosmetologist? ? declared an annual income of approximately $160,000 per year.

In evidence yesterday, Betty Christopher, a former inspector in the Office of the Tax Commissioner, spoke of a conversation with Smith in March 2002.

She was in the process of reviewing his tax file relating to Architectural Design Services which had been ?deactivated? because Smith said he had not run this business for the past ten years.

Interviewing Smith as a result of information the Tax Commission had received, Ms Christopher said he stated that prior to joining the BHC he ran Architectural Design Services as a full-time business.

?I pointed out the fact that he was not paying much tax at that time,? Ms Christopher read from a note of the interview. ?He said he worked on and off because he was sick with stomach ulcers.?

When quizzed on why his business remained listed in the phone book, Smith said he had neglected to take it out. He said that he had not done any business worth more than $650 per quarter in the past ten years ? the point at which tax becomes payable.

?The taxpayer was of the opinion that everyone was picking on him,? Ms Christopher recalled, again reading from her note of the meeting.

Earlier this week, the jury heard of an interview Smith had with the BHC Board of Directors in 2002 when he described himself as a trained but non-certified architectural technician and draftsman.

Witness Kevin Pilgrim, owner of SOHO Systems who worked on Smith?s home, said in his evidence that Smith described himself as the main architect for the BHC.

Yesterday, Thelma Trott, Assistant Registrar General of the Registry General, explained that professional architects in Bermuda must be listed on files at her office as legitimately qualified. Smith has never been registered.

Smith is accused of fraudulently allowing $1.3 million of BHC funds to be paid to carpenter Steven Barbosa between September 2000 and February 2002 by rubber-stamping overpayments for his work.

Mr. Barbosa is said to have passed $924,668 in profits from this con back to Smith in the form of cash and luxury goods purchased for his home. Further details of the business dealings between the pair were given by witnesses yesterday.

Hugh Barit, a former tenant of Smith?s at Tee Street, said he had paid his $9,000 monthly rent by wire transfer to the company Architectural Design Services.

When he moved out of Tee Street in December 2000 the return of his security deposit was given to him by way of a $6,950 cheque from Steven Barbosa?s carpentry business account.

Leslie Rans, Chief Financial Officer of the Bermuda Telephone Company, said files showed Steven Barbosa once paid them a cheque for Smith?s telephone bill.

Smith faces 46 charges of obtaining property by false pretences, all of which he denies. The case continues.