By Peter Polack

Peter Polck

wo high members of the British elite, Andrew Windsor and Peter Mandelson, were recently arrested not only for dealings with a pedophile, but ultimately, telling lies. 

Caribbean legal systems and the ministers that oversee them, do not place a high value on discovery and prosecution of lies. The Americans, especially the FBI, place great store on discovery of lies in interviews or evidence, the discovery of which would lead to prosecution and a heavy criminal sentence. The Caribbean has no similar procedure to stop officials, criminals or the man in the street from telling self serving lies.

Lies are the foundation of all crimes in one way or another. Lies affect us in daily life, matrimonial life, business life and government life. Strange that such a widespread pestilence which destroys the lives and possessions of so many are not the subject of equally large criminal proceedings and a specific offence.

There should be a general or omnibus crime of lying, walking hand in hand with general crimes, which should have a serious penalty.

Lies are like the foreword to serious and simple crimes like murder, rape, fraud, theft and breach of government regulations. They are rarely prosecuted especially under the name of perjury. Some odious lies are dealt with by the new tactic, the administration fine or get out of jail card.

There are black lies, the faux lesser white lies, simple lies, complex lies, lies to spouses, lies to officials and what should be the worse condemnation, lies to law enforcement and revenue officials. All lies are equal, like virginity, either it is or is not.

One of the biggest lies is from unexplained wealth, a serious and new type of crime successfully prosecuted in the United Kingdom. The Caribbean is wary of following the prosecution of this obvious and more venal successor to money laundering. Caribbean financial crime officials are hesitant to prosecute their citizens who hide assets in tax havens or pursuing their sister offence, money laundering.

The unexplained wealth order is a miracle law enforcement rule that many hide from, both criminals, politicians and law enforcement. It could fill many a budget hole without more taxes.

The hesitancy probably lies in the political and economic power of these miscreants who continues to look down on the little man forced into paying tax at source.

In the meantime governments increase the burden of taxation without exposing those who do not pay their fair share often using the tool of money laundering.

It is not as counter intuitive as some might think to propose that the prosecution of falsehoods will evolve from hollow, righteous condemnation to abject criminality. The fervent pursuit of this key foundation of society could lead to less crime in circumstances where defaulters are aware of the likely outcome of all lies. 

The greatest crime prevention method, stopping crime before it is committed.

It is worth a try when other methods have failed.

An ounce of prevention and all that.

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88. 

His views are his own.