A senior Police officer is going head to head with Government in a fight to resist a rental increase and eviction.

Supt. Victor Richmond squared off against the Bermuda Housing Corporation in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

The long serving officer won a Supreme Court Appeal last year to stave off his displacement from a Government property on Alexandra Road at Prospect which he has rented for 26 years.

The legal dispute began in September 1996 when the BHC wanted to carry out substantial renovations which would have led to a rental increase of more than 100 percent.

But Supt. Richmond refused to surrender possession to allow the work to take place.

The case has already been before both the lower and upper courts.

Yesterday, Supt. Richmond admitted he had been renting another accommodation in Paget for years, but said his "formal address'' remained the home on Alexandra Road.

And he maintained he was entitled to rent the property as long as he was an officer of the Bermuda Police Service.

But during yesterday's legal submissions Chris LaVigne, representing the BHC, said Supt. Richmond did not have that right.

Mr. LaVigne also dismissed Supt. Richmond's claim that a series of "correspondences'' between the Commissioner of Police, BHC and Government Ministers had any bearing on the rental agreements.

Supt. Richmond earlier testified discussions among senior officers, then Commissioner Leonard Edwards, and BHC officials began after a number of Police officers voiced concerns about a plan to "denominate'' police housing to make it generally available to the public.

Yesterday, Mr. Richard Hector, representing Supt. Richmond, displayed a bundle of letters which arose from the issue and also an extract from a Cabinet meeting in which the matter was discussed.

But Mr. LaVigne argued: "Nothing arises out of these 1992 correspondences that made its way to 1993 lease.'' And he pointed out: "Mr. Richmond said that from the moment he took up occupancy in 1970 he felt he was able to reside there until his employment with the Bermuda Police department came to an end.

"So it wasn't a result of this back and forth in 1992 that created any additional rights outside of the tenancy agreement as Mr. Richmond said he always felt from the get-go that he could stay there until his employment came to an end.'' Mr. LaVigne also said Supt. Richmond had failed to provide any other formal agreements beyond the rental contracts.

"The only documents before your Worship...are the leases I have provided to you commencing in 1970 and ending with the lease of 1993 (which was the last that Supt. Richmond signed),'' said Mr. LaVigne. "All of which are stated to be month-by-month tenancies.'' Mr. Richard Hector, representing Supt. Richmond, countered that his client believed his right to stay in his home had been safeguarded by the Commissioner's intervention.

"There was confusion on behalf of the persons who occupied these houses, the Police officers, that they would lose the houses that they had occupied for some considerable time,'' said Mr.Hector.

"These concerns were raised and it was clear that correspondence went on between the Housing Corporation and the Commissioner of Police with direct relevance to the houses occupied by Police officers.

"My client is saying that because of what he heard before about the proposal to denominate housing occupied by him, and because of what he was informed about the representation being made by the Commissioner of Police to the Housing Commission and the Ministers and Cabinet, he was of the view that when he signed his lease on April 15, 1993 it was based on the underpinning that all present tenants like himself would be allowed to continue living on the premises until they finished their employment or chose to leave.'' Mr. King is expected to give a ruling on the matter on May 14.