Tobago police recruit charged with perverting course of justice

A 32-year-old police recruit is one of two people expected to appear before a Scarborough magistrate on Monday to face charges of perverting the course of justice.

A police media release on Monday reported that recruit Reneasha Williams of Falcon Drive, Sou Sou Lands, Tobago and Jokiah Leacock, 23, of Great Street, Plymouth, were jointly charged for conspiring to do acts to pervert the course of public justice by counselling a witness to give a false statement.

Williams received an additional charge of doing an act with the tendency to pervert the course of public justice by making a false report at a police station and doing an act with the tendency to pervert the course of public justice by counselling a witness to give a false report to the police.

Leacock was charged with driving a motor vehicle while not being the holder of a driver's permit, being the driver of a vehicle when an accident occurred and failing to go to the nearest police station to report the accident.

The arrests and charges stemmed from an incident on February 13, when a man was involved in a car accident in which another car was damaged.

The owner of the car reported that she was driving the car at the time.

Both the owner and the driver allegedly tried to convince a witness to give a false account of the accident by saying the owner of the car was driving it at the time.

A probe was launched and the Professional Standards Bureau arrested Williams and Leacock.

Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, gave instructions to charge Williams and Leacock on Friday.

The charges were laid by acting W/Cpl Burgan.

Williams was granted bail with a surety of $60,000 by a justice of the peace to cover the three charges.

Investigations were led by W/Snr Supt Suzette Martin with supervision from Insp Narine and assistance from acting Sgt Mohammed, acting W/Cpl Bernard and acting Cpl Joefield.