referring to them incorrectly.

The lawyer, Ms Elizabeth Christopher, appeared before the Bermuda Court of Appeal on behalf of Victoria Zambardi, 37, who launched an appeal against the ten-year prison sentence she received on December 29 for importing more than $90,000 worth of crack cocaine into Bermuda.

Zambardi, of Brooklyn, New York, arrived on a flight from the United States with 51 "pellets'' of crack cocaine inside her stomach and another 11 pellets in her handbag. The drugs were valued at $93,750.

The Court of Appeal will deliver its decision later.

During her submissions, Ms Christopher constantly referred to the members of the panel as `Sir' which prompted Mr. Justice Kempster to intervene.

"You say Sir to a Magistrate,'' he said. "You say My Lord to a member of the Superior Court.'' Ms Christopher continued to refer to the panel as "Sir'', leading Mr. Justice Kempster to say: "Ms Christopher, we've tried to help you with the normal formal address,'' he said. "I trust you have been at the Bar for more than a year?'' The basis for the appeal, Ms Christopher argued, was that her client's sentence of ten years was "harsh and excessive,'' because the purity of the drugs had not been given the proper weight.

"Some samples were 47 or 48 percent pure,'' she said. "When you recognise that the reduction of the quality of the drug makes it less potent and harmful.'' Asked for evidence to support this assertion, Ms Christopher admitted she had none.

She said that a person should only be sentenced for the quantity of the drug found in a mixture and not on the whole amount.

She said her client had been stopped with 340.35 grams of crack cocaine and it was incorrect for authorities to call this mixture crack. Instead it should have been referred to as a "crack mixture.'' Ms Christopher argued that since the mixture was not all cocaine and her client had been sentenced to 10 years on that basis, justice required that she be sentenced only on the proportion of the mixture that was crack -- some 241.47 grams.

Moreover, Ms Christopher said that Zambardi's personal circumstances made her a target for drug pushers and this was not given proper consideration.

Crown Counsel Mr. Brian Calhoun said the Chief Justice had docked two years off the recommended 12-year sentence.

He said that since 1989 the courts have made a distinction between offences involving crack and powdered cocaine because crack was more addictive.

This feature increased its commercial value for dealers who were assured of clientele desperate for their next high.