several cheques drawn on Percy Ball's trust account at the accused's instruction, it emerged yesterday.

Michel Colmet, who worked for Vaucrosson between 1988 and 1992, said he was unhappy about taking the money from Ball's trust account and "threading it through'' Amulion Investments, a company that the accused owned in 1991.

However he said he did it at Vaucrosson's request.

Colmet prepared a series of cheques. The first one was for $50,452.10 to the Bank of Bermuda on February 15, 1991.

"I wrote (Vaucrosson's) initials on the stub to remind myself that he instructed me to write that cheque to the Bank of Bermuda,'' Colmet said.

Colmet said the cheque became a topic of discussion later that day and he discussed it with Steven Gibbons the firm's financial controller.

"He (Gibbons) told me that he had refused to countersign the cheque. I was never told by (Vaucrosson) to write this cheque.

"It was not my duty per se to check and find out why this cheque was written on a trust account,'' he explained.

"Most of the time once the cheque had been signed and countersigned I was then instructed to attach it to a document. I would then bring it to the lawyer.'' Colmet said that it was usually at that time that he found out why he had been asked to prepare the cheque.

On February 21, 1991, Colmet prepared a second cheque for $31,000 that was drawn on Ball's trust account. That $31,000 was then transferred from the trust account through Amulion Investments and into Vaucrosson's office payroll account where it was used to pay his staff.

Colmet said this was all done at Vaucrosson's prompting. "At this point I knew the funds were being threaded through Amulion Investments to payroll,'' he said.

He said he raised the matter "in a very minute way a couple of times with Steven Gibbons,'' although he did not raise it with Vaucrosson even though he said he was unhappy with the transaction he was told to conduct.

Despite his displeasure, Colmet prepared another cheque for $151,750 on February 27, 1991. This money was also drawn from the Ball trust account and used to repay a mortgage.

The Crown's case against Vaucrosson is based on allegations that he abused his position as the administrator of the Ball's estate and spent close to $400,000 of the money to pay off his own debts.

Vaucrosson lives on North Shore Road, Pembroke. He is accused of stealing more than $300,000 from the beneficiaries of Ball's trust fund. Ball was a journalist at the Bermuda Broadcasting Company.

Of the nine charges, the first eight relate to Vaucrosson acting for Ball's estate between an unknown time and February 1 and March 1, 1991.

It is alleged that he stole money -- ranging in amounts from $9,000 to $151,750 from the beneficiaries of the estate.

And the ninth charge alleges that he fraudulently disposed of the trust property -- some $393,782.58 -- and committed it to uses other than those authorised by the trust.

The trial continues today.