yesterday, Barry Wellman will have to wait until at least this afternoon for the jury's decision.

Wellman, 38, of Cooks Hill, Sandys is charged with possessing and handling more than $32,000 worth of cocaine that was found in his ex-girlfriend's car on December 28, 1992.

His lawyer Mr. Richard Hector, called it "the case of the rainbow consignment'', referring to the varying purities of the drugs found.

"This case is not worth the time it took to bring it here,'' he said. "My client is 38 and without a blemish. He has no previous convictions and does not drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes.

"No one can say Barry Wellman had drugs, but they are asking you to infer from questionable facts that he was in possession.

"The drugs were found in a car in an open yard. He was not in the car at the time the drugs were found.'' Mr. Hector said it was "a quantum leap'' to reason that because Wellman often drove his ex-girlfriend's car that he also put the drugs there.

But Crown counsel Mr. Diarmuid Doorly advised the jury to ignore almost all of Mr. Hector's "lengthy, exhaustive and magnificent speech''.

He said the defence's unspoken allegation that Police officers planted the drugs in the car, was nothing more than "cowardly insinuation''.

"Wellman had money ($5,500) in large bills and tried to get a Police witness to change his story. He also tried to find out who had called the Police Headquarters and Det. Sgt. Lightbourne.

"This has all the hallmarks of a typical Police investigation. There is absolutely no evidence of prior planning.

"Wellman was fully dressed early that morning (December 28, 1992). There is only one solution to all of these disconnected coincidences, Barry Wellman was in possession of the drugs.'' The case will go before the jury later today after they receive instrucions on the law from Puisne Judge the Hon. Mrs. Justice Wade.