THE much anticipated playing of the recordings in the Cuban light bulb case involving former junior energy minister Kern Spencer did not materialise yesterday due to strong opposition from defence lawyers throughout the proceedings in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court.

But Crown witness Rodney Chin -- who made the 20-plus recordings of conversations between himself and Spencer some time between October 2007 when the Cuban light bulb scandal broke and 2008 -- gave the court a preview of what was to come.

Chin said Spencer, on one of the recordings, wanted to know if he (Chin) had told anyone "the truth" about who really owned the companies allegedly set up to take advantage of the Cuban light bulb project in 2006.

"A main topic was if I spoke to anybody and told them the truth about what happened," Chin told the court. "There was another specific one about the two bus drivers who had gone to the Office of the Contractor General.

When pressed moments later by Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn on this issue, Chin added, "He [Spencer] said he spoke to the two drivers and that they would go back to the contractor general and change their earlier statements."

Chin said that in another conversation he and Spencer had a heated conversation about whether he (Chin) had gone to the "authority".

"Spencer called me and me and him had a heated discussion. He wanted to know if I had told the relevant persons that I was not involved in running the companies... he wanted confirmation that I did not," Chin said.

Chin said that Spencer had told him not to reveal that he (Chin) was just a frontman for the dummy companies. Chin also spoke of two letters that Spencer had asked him to write for a report he (Spencer) was scheduled to submit to the Auditor General's Department.

During his evidence, which was to lay the foundation for the playing of the tapes, Chin said he could not remember in details the conversations and an application was made for him to listen privately to the recordings before continuing. The application was, however, refused.

Following the luncheon break, Llewellyn applied for the playing of exhibit 22 A, but the application was stoutly opposed by Queen's Counsel KD Knight and attorney Patrick Atkinson.

The lawyers submitted that no purpose would be served by the playing of this recording as the material was not relevant to the case. It was also submitted that the recording contained mostly hearsay material.

But during an exchange with the defence lawyers, Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey said she would have to listen to the recording in court in order to decide on the matter of relevance and hearsay.

However, Atkinson said that no purpose would be served in "broadcasting to the world" the content of the recording. It was suggested by Knight that Pusey, in coming to a decision on the matter of hearsay and relevance, read a transcript of that recording, instead of listening to it in open court.

But in response, Llewellyn suggested to Pusey that the defence was attempting to have her reverse her ruling a week ago that the recordings were admissible.

Following the lengthy arguments, Pusey said she would rule today whether to listen to the tape in open court or read the transcript in order to determine the issue of relevance or hearsay.

Should the judge rule that the recording is relevant, it would become a part of the evidence against Spencer.

Spencer and co-accused Coleen Wright are facing corruption-related charges stemming from the distribution of four million energy-saving bulbs, a gift from the Cuban Government, which which ended up costing Jamaican taxpayers millions of dollars.