stomach was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.

Wilfred Arthur George Matthews swallowed 26 pellets of heroin and cannabis, weighing 66.6 grams and 54.3 grams respectively, before flying to Bermuda from London, in May this year.

The Supreme Court heard that Matthews took the risk to help pay for hospital fees for his son, who lost a leg and was paralysed following a road accident.

Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller passed the sentence after hearing that the 50-year-old defendant had been apprehended by Police after disembarking from a British Airways flight on May 14.

Senior Crown counsel Patrick Doherty said following an interview Matthews was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for an X-ray. The examination revealed foreign objects in his stomach.

He was arrested, but denied there was anything in his body.

He refused treatment but was kept under Police watch at the hospital. Two days later he passed a total of 25 black-wrapped pellets, and later handed one further pellet to Police.

In an interview, he admitted that 18 contained heroin and eight cannabis.

Subsequent analysis revealed the heroin was of 46 percent purity, with an estimated street value of $464,475. The cannabis was worth $5,450.

Matthews, of Shinbone Alley, St. George's, pleaded guilty on September 30 to importing a controlled drug.

Elizabeth Christopher, in mitigation, said Matthews, a father of three, felt guilty because his son was crippled and faced hospital bills of $8,000 -- and no one else could help.

She called for a sentence at the lower end of the scale, bearing in mind his age and his plea of guilty. In addition, she said he gave up the final pellet of drugs to Police when he could have secreted it.

Matthews apologised for his actions.