Vernon Simons was accused by a prosecutor of "lying through his teeth" in denying any role in a drug importation plot.

Simons is on trial at Supreme Court, accused of conspiring with his employer Shannon Tucker and others to bring in cannabis and ecstasy worth in excess of $450,000.

The narcotics were stashed in metal parts for a high-lift machine that Tucker ordered in from Philadelphia.

Tucker, 33, has already pleaded guilty to plotting to import the drugs and is awaiting sentence. Simons, 24, protests his innocence and suggested to the jury yesterday that he had been "framed" in relation to the accusation.

In Police interviews that have been played to the jury, he blamed a third man, Matthew Clarke, for the plot and accused Mr. Clarke of setting him up. The jury has heard from prosecutors that Mr. Clarke is now dead.

Simons arrived and left the Island on the same flight as Tucker in December 2007, with both spending time in the US. Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney says the pair made the trip together to organise the drug importation.

Simons told the Police in interviews that it was a coincidence he and Tucker were away at the same time, and stressed that his trip was one he took alone. However, in his evidence on the stand yesterday he told the court he did make the trip with Tucker and the pair were "just about always together" in the US.

Asked by his defence lawyer Larry Scott if he'd made any agreement with Shannon Tucker to import drugs to Bermuda, Simons replied: "No, I did not, I did not make any arrangements with him or any agreements. I did not."

When Mr. Scott asked what he thought of the charges he faces, Simons replied: "I think it's a big misunderstanding because I didn't have nothing to do with it."–Cross-examining him on his evidence yesterday afternoon, Mr. Mahoney accused him of repeatedly changing his account of events.

"You, Shannon and others all had this agreement to go to Philadelphia and use these parts to import some drugs into Bermuda," alleged the prosecutor.

Simons replied: "That's a false speculation. I don't have nothing to do with it."

The defendant told the jury he'd been locked up for nine months in relation to another matter prior to the incident in question, getting released in September 2007. He also repeated that Tucker and Mr. Clarke had asked him to "take the fall" for the drugs importation. And refusing at one point to answer cross-examination questions from Mr. Mahoney, Simons told judge Charles-Etta Simmons twice: "I don't have no response to nothing he says right now. I'm already doing a life sentence for something else."–He did not elaborate on what he meant, and the judge chided him: "We're not interested in hearing about that."

He went on to field further cross-examination questions from the prosecutor, who continued by alleging: "You were involved in this conspiracy, and you are just lying through your teeth." Simons, responded: "I ain't lying, I ain't got nothing to prove."–The case continues.