Don’t pay bailors!
Tobago Senior Magistrate Annette McKenzie noted that the practice of paying bailors was now a "culture" within the country’s justice system. The magistrate signalled her intention to deal with the issue in other quarters as she made it clear to a defendant in the Scarborough First Court on Monday that he was not to do so. She issued the warning after Damien Douglas, the defendant in a malicious wounding matter, admitted that he had paid a fee to the person who secured his bail. "This thing of paying a bailor has become a culture now. I would have to bring this up in another forum," the magistrate asserted. "This is not the procedure; you are not to pay a bailor," she told Douglas. "You are not to pay for something like that; that is not the proper procedure!" Douglas, who was charged by detective Cpl Ucef Alexander with wounding Macky John at Government House Road in Scarborough on July 4, pleaded not guilty. He is to reappear in court on January 19.
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"Don’t pay bailors!"