Court decision

Sentence

On 14 August 2018, the defendant was sentenced to six week’s immediate imprisonment and was ordered to make a restitution of $1,000 that had been received from the first complainant as referral fee. He was earlier found guilty of three offences, two of which of being an agent to solicit an advantage and one of being an agent to accept an advantage, contrary to section 9(1)(a) of the POBO.

In mitigation, the defendant said that his wife who was seriously ill required constant care and he himself had already been dismissed by the engineering company. In passing sentence, the magistrate reprimanded the defendant for showing no remorse and highlighted the message delivered to members of the public loud and clear that a custodial sentence was certainly what one would receive for breaching the corruption offences.

As there was insufficient evidence to prove the defendant’s carrying out a deliberate attack on the investigating officer and the defendant was believed to be struggling hard at that time, he was finally found not guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.