A grandmother could be forced to find a new home if prosecutors strip her convicted drug smuggling daughter of her assets.

Judy Louise Spence, 45, began a 13-year jail sentence last year after admitting possessing liquid cocaine with a street value of around $427,625.

Yesterday, the single mother-of-two was brought before the Island's Supreme Court again to hear what would happen to her property, which she bought and shared with her mother, Lavinia.

Prosecutor Sandra Bacchus told the court that she estimated Spence had benefited from her drug smuggling to the sum of $601,583.

She said the Director of Public Prosecutions was looking to recoup about $485,171 by confiscating Spence's share of the property at Boundary Terrace, Devonshire. Ms. Bacchus said Spence had benefited from trafficking over a six-year period and therefore should face a confiscation order.

But speaking in defence of the convicted drug smuggler, barrister Kim Wilson said she had affidavits to prove the mother and daughter had jointly bought the property.

And she said the women had "pooled their resources'', paying together both the mortgage payments and maintenance costs.

She said the court should not be deciding how much interest she has in the property as a third party, they should be considering her as a jointowner. But she said the grandmother would probably have to move out of the home, anyway, if the Crown confiscated her daughter's share of the property. "She is better than a third party. She is a half owner,'' said Ms Wilson. The prosecution claimed the grandmother had no evidence to show that she had made any payments towards the house To which Ms Wilson replied: "We take the view that the affidavit is evidence.'' Spence was arrested in February last year following an international drugs operation that netted narcotics worth $500,000.

She was caught by Police as she sat in a waiting car on February 2 at the Grotto Bay Hotel where she worked after sending in her nephew Comal Spence to pick up the bottles.

Narcotics officers had set a trap for the two after breaking a drugs ring, which imported cocaine into Bermuda from Jamaica, via the US.

Her 24-year-old nephew, of High Point Road, Devonshire, told Police his aunt had paid him around $1,400 to deliver crack cocaine on three or four occasions.

He pleaded guilty to handling cocaine.

Ms Wilson, who defended the single mother last year, said at the time that the defendant was trying to raise cash to help educate her son who had attention deficit disorder.