Absolutely!

The police acted as judge and jury on the matter by sending the lady to jail.

The police are NOT debt collectors.

So what was the problem?

Based on the knowledge I have gleaned from the television account, the police statements and other media reports the police handling of the incident was excessive and I don’t have to be a lawyer to see that.

Yes, the police may have had grounds to stop the soccer mum from leaving the country but to force her to spend a night in a prison cell. NO!!!!

There was a dispute, There is no crime in a dispute.

Whilst I have a great amount of respect for Police public relations officer Jacqueline Carpenter the police did NOT have sufficient grounds to make the lady, Fuambai Ahmadu spend a night in jail. As far as I am aware Ahmadu is not a known criminal. I am not even sure the arrest warrant was correct.

Ahmadu is an expert on the subject of female genital mutilation who has worked for UNICEF and the British Medical Research Council, She was here in the Cayman Islands to watch her son play football.

The case was not the same as someone running away from a hotel after refusing to pay the bill. There was a dispute over the terms of the contract between the Guest House owner and Ahmadu. The Guest House according to Ahmadu had insisted on a full cash payment up front.

The police, by locking the lady up in a police cell overnight, unquestionably over reacted. Just taking her passport away and making her appear before a magistrate in the morning might have been justified but that is all.

The bill was paid in the morning and the charges were dismissed by the magistrate. I am not sure whether the police charged her for her stay in the police cell.

When one relates this case with misbehaving police officers it is a different story. According to a report issued by former Cayman Islands Information Commissioner Jennifer Dilbert in 2011 it appeared that a case brought by a member of the public against a police officer will go no further because the officer in question resigned. The case would only be reopened if the police officer rejoined the RCIPS!

Compounding

When you read the whole story at the link below you will see there is a connection with the above incident because the police officer in this case allegedly committed an offence by ‘compounding’.

Local attorney Anthony Akiwumi was representing a client who was accused of dishonestly appropriating rental payments of some $22,600 made by two tenants to a landlord who had hired the defendant to manage the property.

The defendant argued that an employee of her company was to blame for the thefts.

Akiwumi argued on behalf of the defendant that the investigating officer in the case, Clarke, committed the offence known as compounding “by attempting to obtain payment of the missing rental sums for the benefit of the landlord by way of an agreement that the defendant would not be prosecuted if she paid the sums…”

Magistrate Foldats said the evidence disclosed that Clarke, without directions from a superior officer, assisted the landlord to reach an unlawful agreement with the defendant by which prosecution for theft was delayed – and would have been abstained from – if the total missing rent had been paid.

Further, the magistrate said, Clarke had taken an active, aggressive and partisan role. “In essence, he was acting as an unregulated, private debt collector while clothed in the authority of a police officer – ‘pressuring’ the defendant to make payments under threat of arrest.”

See http://www.compasscayman.com/observer/2012/05/27/The-get-out-of-trouble-card/

Clarke resigned from the RCIPS and that would appear to be the end of the matter.

Now we have a soccer mum who is a respected public figure thrown into jail under very dubious circumstances and our police force gets some more bad publicity.

The handling of the whole affair was disgracefully excessive! And compounding…?

And…. Was the guest house actually licensed?

Ahmadu was reported as booking her room from a website such as Airbnb.com and Vrbo.com.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) recently stated under the Tourism Law (1995), all short term rental tourist accommodations in the Cayman Islands are required to be licensed, inspected and pay the relevant taxes. Many have not.

The Hotel Licensing Board (HLB) has stated not paying the required fee is illegal and can attract a fine.

However, there is now a reprieve. The HLB is offering amnesty from 1 October – 31 December to unlicensed property owners wishing to sublet their guest rooms, apartments or houses to visitors.

Licenses for hotels expire on 31 October of each year. Hotels must be licensed before 1 November of each year.

I do not know if the guest house Ahmadu was staying at was registered or not. If not the RCIPS will have more egg on their face.