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Bermudians are moving pretty smartly towards a cashless society. We are using credit and debit cards and internet banking more and more and using cash less and less.

But there is one small group who are still dealing in cash - and lots of it.

Criminals. They don't buy drugs and guns with cheques or credit cards. They pay cash.

So if the bad guys need cash so badly but the rest of us don't need it very much at all, let's do something simple but devastating to crime.

Let's get rid of cash. Let's ban it completely. Let's make it illegal to possess cash in Bermuda.

It might be a little inconvenient at times but it will be incredibly inconvenient all the time for gangsters, drug dealers and gunmen.

It would make it very difficult for Bermuda drug importers to buy drugs overseas. It would make it very difficult for them to sell drugs to anyone in Bermuda.

It would make it incredibly difficult for anyone in Bermuda to buy guns and ammunition. A lot of other illegal activity would become impossible, or at least a lot more difficult.

Handbag snatchings from tourists would dry up.

Cash registers wouldn't be robbed. Street begging would vanish. Illegal foreign workers would no longer be able to work "off the books" for cash.

I'm not saying crime would vanish if cash were banned. The criminal mind is devious.

But if cash were not being used, there would be a much better record of financial transactions for investigators to follow.

Crime would certainly plummet in a world without cash.

Consider, for example, the unsolved case of Richard Gaglio. He was shot and almost killed during an armed robbery at his Devonshire home last September.

If there were no cash in Bermuda, the armed robber would almost certainly not have gone to the house in the first place.

Mr. Gaglio hosted a regular poker game in his garage and the gunman was presumably after the gamblers' money.

In a cashless world, the robber would have gotten little more than a lot of plastic poker chips and cheques he could not use.

Even if the poker players had been using illegal cash, the armed robber might have been deterred - what would he do with the cash in a country where cash was illegal? What's more, the robber probably would not have a gun in the first place, if he didn't have cash to buy it with.

So there you have it - a violent gun crime is foiled in several different ways before it happens, simply because no one has cash.

No witnesses required, no hotshot detective work, no skilled and expensive prosecutions... just a simple ban on cash.

To be effective, a cash ban would have to be thorough and complete. The penalty for holding small amounts of cash would be simple confiscation.

Challenges

Holding large amounts of cash could be punished more severely.

Travellers could withdraw cash only as they left Bermuda and could bank it at the airport or cruise terminal when they arrive.

There would be challenges to overcome.

Most difficult, I suspect, would be helping the elderly and a diminishing number of technological Neanderthals.

It would require changing habits and finding new ways to do a few things.

How would we handle children's allowances or spending money?

What will we put in the collection basket in church? Will we tip the bag packer in the grocery store?

What will we slap on a Crown & Anchor table during Cup Match?

We would find new ways of doing things because we would have to.

Advances in technology are already making it easier to manage without cash.

More people are paying more kinds of bills electronically and transferring money between individuals via computers or over the phone.

"Tap-and-go" credit and debit cards are spreading around the world and have now being introduced in Bermuda.

These let users flick their card over a checkout scanner to pay for low-cost items.

We are moving towards a cashless society.

A ban on cash is just one step further down a road we are already travelling.

It is a powerful tool for fighting crime.

It would take some adjustments but surely it is clear by now that we, as a country, have to make serious adjustments if we aren't going to destroy ourselves.

Going without cash is a small price to pay compared with the price we are already paying in lost lives, injury and fear.

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