$220,000 worth of cannabis.

A Supreme Court jury took less than an hour yesterday to also find Gregory Ryan Ashby, of Berkeley Road, Pembroke, guilty of possessing the drug with intent to supply.

Chief Justice Austin Ward ordered Ashby to serve two concurrent eight-year sentences -- minus a three-month period in which he was held in custody.

On February 19 last year Police and Customs officials discovered almost ten pounds of cannabis hidden inside a water heater shipped aboard the container ship Oleander .

Narcotics officers arrested Ashby on February 21 after he and a co-worker from Bermuda Forwarders picked up the heater from the Number Eight Shed on Front Street and took it to Ashby's grandmother's home.

Before dismissing the jury for deliberations yesterday, Mr. Justice Ward warned the six men and six women of the jury to give special consideration to the testimony of Ashby's co-worker, Sinclair MacDonald Pitt.

Earlier in the trial, defence lawyer Archibald Warner had suggested Mr. Pitt could be either the "mastermind'' behind the failed pick-up or an accomplice in the crime.

"If you accept his testimony as given, the question of his being an accomplice does not arise,'' Justice Ward told the jury.

"But if you think he was a participant in some way in the crime, it may be dangerous without corroboration (to accept his testimony). But you may do so if you want.'' The Chief Justice, however, pointed out that Mr. Pitt's testimony was supported by those of other witnesses.

And he said Mr. Pitt's continuing employment at Bermuda Forwarders implied he was still trusted by his employer.

Following his convction, it was disclosed yesterday that Ashby had several Supreme Court convictions in 1994.

That year Ashby pleaded guilty to six offences of giving false statements and five offences of failing to surrender a total of $97,000 in foreign currency.

He served six months imprisonment and paid fines equal to the amount he tried to take out of the Country.

And although the 1994 convictions could not be considered for yesterday's sentencing, Justice Ward said "anytime someone moves all that money, there is something suspicious''.

Yesterday, Crown Counsel Peter Eccles said last year's drug importation was aggravated because Ashby abused two positions of trust.

He had abused his access to what a secure facility on the Docks and his placement of the heater and drugs within his grandmother's basement was a violation of family trust.