Police officer convicted of demanding bribe [1]
Thursday, April 21, 2022 - 19:04. Updated on Friday, April 22, 2022 - 09:20.
By Linny Folau
Pita Vakalahi (28) will be sentenced on 1 June, after he was found guilty of demanding a bribe of $640 pa'anga from a driver in a traffic offence case he worked on in 2019.
Hon. Mr Justice Niu convicted him on April 4, after a trial at the Supreme Court in Nuku'alofa.
He demanded the bribe while serving as a member of Tonga Police, on 27 October 2019 at the Central Police Station in Nuku'alofa. He demanded $640 from Sinai Lelea as an inducement not to charge her with traffic offences in the execution of his duty as a member of the Tonga Police.
The judge said, Sinai (23) in her evidence said on the night of 26 October 2019, while driving, she had an accident and hit the fence of the Teacher's Training School in Nuku'alofa. She said the vehicle belonged to a Chinese man whom she was living with.
She said the accused and another police officer came and took her to the Traffic Office at the Central Police station, where she was tested for alcohol and was put in the cell until the next morning, when the accused brought her into the Traffic Office and questioned her.
Sinai said that she asked the accused if she would go to Court and the accused said yes, but told her there was a way for her not to go to Court.
The accused then told Sinai that his help for her not to go to Court was for her to pay him $540 for her offence of drunk driving and $100 for driving without a licence.
Sinai said that the accused gave her her copy of the "tickets" which he had read to her, that is for two offences for drunk driving and driving without a licence. The tickets did not state the date when she was to go to Court.
The court also heard that the two exchanged text messages on the payment. However, Sinai decided not to give the money to the accused and did not pay him at all.
She also had not been to Court about the accident at all up to now. However, the fence had been repaired costing nearly $8,000.
The accused denied in his evidence that he had told Sinai to pay him $540 for the drunk driving and $100 for the driving without licence at all.
He became a police officer in 2016 and had been suspended because of this case since May 2021.
The judge said the essence of this offence was that the accused demanded money (or other benefit) as an inducement to refrain from doing an act which he is required to do in execution of his duty as a police officer.
At the same time, the accused did not forward the file to the Prosecution Division for 15-days, that is from 27 October 2019 to 11 November 2019.
“I am satisfied that it was because he refrained from forwarding it to the prosecution division, and that he refrained from forwarding it because he had demanded $640 from Sinai in return for ensuring that Sinai would not go to Court for her offences,” said the judge.
"Having considered all the evidence given and produced in this trial, I believe and accept the evidence of Sinai. It is corroborated by the TCC records and by answers given by the accused himself in his evidence as I have stated."
The accused was then found guilty and will be sentenced on 1 June.