was thrown out of the Court of Appeal yesterday after allegedly trying to pass "a substance'' to his distraught mother.

Kirk Roberts passed a hanky to his mother Barbara, 60, after she began sobbing during the appeal against her and her husband's 12-year jail sentence.

But a prison warder stepped in, took the tissue and told Court of Appeal President Sir James Astwood that it contained "a substance''.

Mr. Roberts was taken outside by the warden but returned a short time later and tried to speak to his mother again. At this point Sir James ordered that he leave the chamber immediately.

During the trial of Barbara and William Roberts last November, the court heard how the couple's son was thought to be involved in the drugs trade. The couple's lawyers even implied that he had "left them holding the baby'', although he has never been charged in connection with the incident.

The pair were eventually convicted after being found guilty of possession with intent to supply.

At yesterday's appeal against sentence the couple's lawyer, Julian Hall claimed the original sentence was "manifestly harsh and excessive'' because of their ages, previous good character and poor health.

And he insisted that it was only a chance find that led to them being convicted for possession in the first place.

"I want to make it plain from the beginning that it doesn't appear from the Crown's case that either Mr. or Mrs. Roberts were at any time part of a criminal enterprise involved in importing cocaine into Bermuda or that they had anything to do with the arrival of the drugs near their premises,'' he said.

"Barbara Roberts found the drugs near her home but she had no expectation of finding them.

"We are dealing here with two people who are in the twilight of their years.

I have to say that the pain and suffering which my clients have experienced can only be described as an ordeal of the most unimaginable horror. Barbara Roberts is under constant psychiatric care as a result of that experience.

It's obvious she was under great emotional and mental stress even before the trial - she is in a living hell.

"This tragedy is compounded by the fact that both these individuals face the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in jail just because, on one fateful day Barbara Roberts took her grandchildren for a swim and saw some packages in the water and instead of leaving them she took them out and ended up having them in the refrigerator.

"My clients have already been fully punished and I am asking your Lordships to agree with me by allowing a substantial reduction.'' But prosecution counsel Brian Calhoun countered that sympathy should not influence a judge's decision when sentencing.

And he warned that if the elderly couple were treated leniently it would set a dangerous precedent - enabling drugs barons to persuade elderly people to be used as mules on the grounds that they would not get a severe sentence.

"What the courts have indicated every time is that trial judges should steel themselves against showing any sympathy to people who operate in commercial drugs ventures because of the death and destruction that the distribution of those drugs heap upon Bermuda,'' he said.

"The rewards for taking part in the drugs trade is high -- so must be the sentence if detected. Mr. Calhoun also dismissed the argument that the Roberts' were less culpable because they had accidently found the drugs.

"Parliament has said there is not to be a distinction between importing, possessing with intent to supply or supplying because they're all part of the same chain,'' he said.

"If any one of those three things didn't happen then the drugs would not find themselves in the bodies of the young people of this country.'' And he pointed out that the pair had been caught with the largest amount of cocaine ever seized on the Island from a residence and had then pleaded not guilty.

"One cannot imagine a worse case scenario -- the largest amount of cocaine seized and no remorse,'' he said.

"I would ask you to endorse the statement of the trial judge -- that if each person did not play their part this lethal traffic would not exist -- that's right.'' On Thursday the Appeal panel rejected Mr. Hall's claim that the conviction should be quashed because of legal irregularities during the trial. They are expected to give their judgment on the appeal against sentence next week.