Woman cop on wrong side of jail
Published:Thursday | July 1, 2010 | 12:00 AM
A woman constable who pleaded guilty to uttering a forged document in the form of a tax waiver for $45 million was sentenced Tuesday to nine months' imprisonment.
She is 44-year-old Annmarie McKalin, an 11-year member of the Island Special Constabulary Force.
Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey, in sentencing McKalin, rebuked her for deceiving the public and abandoning her duty to uphold law and order.
After McKalin pleaded guilty in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, defence lawyer Melrose Reid appealed to the judge to exercise lenience. Reid said McKalin was very ill and had suffered severe hardship since the incident.
The disgraced cop, who was put on quarter pay by the force, was charged in 2005 with forgery and obtaining money by false pretences but freed following a no-case submission made by Reid on the basis that those charges could not be substantiated.
However, the other charge - uttering a forged document - stood.
Alleged links to bigwigs
The facts of the case were that between June and September 2005, McKalin uttered a forged document addressed to the tax department indicating that a waiver of 100 per cent had been given to a motor-vehicle sales company for 1999-2001.
The document was purportedly signed by Fitz Jackson, then state minister of finance.
The document was submitted to the tax department where it was discovered to be forged.
The court was told that McKalin overheard someone asking a policeman if he knew anyone who could grant a waiver. McKalin told the person that she was a relative of the former minister of finance, Dr Omar Davies, and a friend of Jackson, and could get a waiver for the car company.
She presented the forged waiver to a representative of the car dealer and the document was subsequently submitted to the tax department.