(Jamaica Observer) A St James man has been fined $100,000 after pleading guilty to attempting to bribe a police officer.
Gregory Haughton-Shaw, who reportedly offered $10,000 to a policeman in a bid to secure the release of his motor vehicle, was sentenced in the St James Parish Court on Friday, October 5.
If the fine is not paid, he will serve six months in prison.
According to the police, a team from the traffic headquarters was on duty along the Rose Hall main road in St James, on Monday, May 28, when a member of the team saw a motorcar with an obscured license plate exiting a premise on to the main road.
The police reported that Haughton-Shaw, who was driving the motorcar, was signalled to stop and he complied. The documents and the driver’s license were requested from the driver and he indicated that he was only in possession of his driver’s license, which he handed to the police.
“A member of the police team outlined to him the reason for stopping him, highlighting that the license plate on the car was obscured and unreadable. Subsequently, a traffic ticket for the offence of ‘obscured license plate’ was issued and the motorcar seized and wrecked to the Transport Authority pound for safe keeping,” the police said.
Later that same day Haughton-Shaw allegedly attempted to bribe the officer, which resulted in him being arrested for reasonable suspicion of bribery and later charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act.
