Andre' Williams & Barbara Gayle, STAR Writers

Opposition parliamentarian Daryl Vaz became a free man yesterday after the prosecution was forced to offer no further evidence in the corruption case against him.

Vaz's acquittal came after the main witness, Sergeant Jubert Llewelyn, admitted during his testimony in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court that there was a lot of inaccuracy in his statement.

One of his lawyers Peter Champagne, said Vaz is relieved, and in all the circumstances he is grateful to his family, well-wishers and members of his constituency who gave support to him during what was a difficult time.

"The proceedings in court today and the results are indications of our client's position from day one that he was innocent of any criminal conduct," said Champagne after Vaz was freed.

Traffic violation

Vaz departed the court as soon as the proceedings ended.

The charge against Vaz stemmed from an alleged traffic violation involving businessman Bruce Bicknell after he was stopped on the Florizel Glasspole Highway for speeding in April 2012.

Arising from the incident, Bicknell and former Senior Superintendent James Forbes were charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Vaz was subsequently charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act.

The senior policeman was convicted in May 2014 and fined $800,000 or six months' imprisonment. He is appealing his conviction.

Bicknell was freed in February last year of the charge.

Police Sergeant Jubert Llewellyn, who stopped Bicknell, alleged that the businessman attempted to bribe him with $2,000 to have the ticket dismissed.

Prosecutors have alleged that four days later, Forbes convened a meeting at his St Andrew offices with Bicknell, Llewellyn and Sergeant Delon Lewis - who arrested Bicknell for the alleged bribery - where a decision was taken to resolve the matter and not place it before the courts.

Bribery case

Vaz, who was also represented by attorney-at-law George Soutar, was accused of visiting Llewellyn at the Elletson Road Police station and allegedly made appeals to the sergeant to drop the bribery case against Bicknell. Yesterday, when Vaz appeared in court he pleaded not guilty.

Evidence was given by Llewellyn who admitted that there was a lot of inaccuracies in his statement. He said he was forced to give a statement in circumstances where he thought he would have been charged.

Llewellyn said, under cross-examination by Champagne, that when he was going to give his statement he was taken from traffic headquarters in a marked police vehicle and his service revolver was taken from him. He said he had never been treated like that before and that caused him to feel as if he were in custody.

After Llewellyn completed his testimony, Prosecutor Broderick Smith said in light of the evidence presented the prosecution was offered no further evidence.