Two months after being arraigned on a charge of robbery-under-arms, an Albouystown shop owner found himself back in the Georgetown courts after he was slapped with two other charges which included attempted bribery committed on a police officer.
Christopher Gonsalves 27, stood before Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman on Monday and denied both of the charges when they were read to him.
The first charge stated that the Albouystown businessman willfully attempted to obstruct the course of justice by offering $150,000 to police Sergeant George so as to prevent the institution of a charge against him on October 3, while he was at the Brickdam Police Station.
Another charge stated that on the same day in question while he was in the vicinity of Punt Street, Albouystown he had in his possession 530 grams of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.
Police prosecutor Quinn Harris informed the court that plain clothes ranks went to a shop that the accused usually operates in that area and asked if he had “weed to sell”.
Further facts stated that Gonsalves then left the shop on a pedal cycle and came back 15 minutes after with a “bulky plastic bag” which contained the suspected cannabis.
He was subsequently arrested with the aforementioned amount of ganja after the rank identified himself as a police officer.
Moreover, on arrival to the Brickdam Police Station around 16:00h he asked to speak with the officer in charge and then made the brave attempt to bribe the sergeant. He was further slapped with the present charge after the same sum of cash was lodged at the station.
Unrepresented by legal counsel, Gonsalves told the court that he never tried to bribe the officer with the money but rather he told the officer to “hand the money ($150,000) over to my family since I was in the lockup”.
He was granted $200,000 bail for the bribery charge and remanded to prison for the possession of narcotics. The matter is adjourned to November 5.
