By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE Crown closed its case yesterday against former Cabinet minister Shane Gibson over allegations he demanded more than $300,000 from local businessman Jonathan Ash to ensure the contractor would be paid for hurricane cleanup efforts.

Lead Crown attorney James Guthrie, QC, made the announcement to Justice Carolita Bethel and the jury yesterday afternoon, after the latter fielded just over two months of evidence against the former parliamentarian.

The Crown and the defence will make legal submissions in the absence of the jury today. The jury will reconvene on Thursday.

Gibson is charged with 15 counts of bribery. It is alleged that between January 16 and 19, 2017, and being concerned with a woman connected to him, Deborah Bastian, he had solicited $250,000 from Mr Ash as an inducement to or a reward for him giving assistance or using his influence in approving outstanding payments owed to Mr Ash by the government.

The Crown further asserts that on various dates between January 19-31, 2017, Gibson, still concerned with Bastian, consequently accepted $100,000 worth of payments from Mr Ash. Then between January 30 and February 28 of that year, Gibson accepted several cash payments from Mr Ash totaling some $100,000.

Between February 10 and March 27, 2017, Gibson solicited and accepted a total of $80,000 from Ash, but this time he was not concerned with Bastian, the Crown maintains. The Crown claims Mr Ash initially made the payments to Gibson through Ms Bastian for the first set of payments totaling $200,000, but made them directly to Gibson for the remaining $80,000.

At the start of the trial, Mr Guthrie claimed that Gibson took “advantage” of Mr Ash by soliciting $330,000 from the contractor over three months in 2017 in exchange for him using his government position to ensure Mr Ash would be paid the $1m plus he was owed by the government in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

Mr Guthrie conceded that as Mr Ash was involved in making the various payments, it is fair to assert that he partook in the criminal acts.

However, Mr Guthrie said it was Gibson who instigated the offences, and that he had “no business” accepting the “dirty money” from Mr Ash, who was eventually granted immunity from prosecution.

Mr Guthrie, in summarising the evidence, said after Hurricane Matthew battered the Bahamas, and New Providence in particular in October 2016, the government spearheaded a “huge” clean-up operation. Mr Ash, of Ash Enterprises and Trucking Services, was one of many persons involved in the efforts.

Mr Ash, Mr Guthrie said, owns a number of trucks and heavy equipment and was able to call on “large numbers of men” to perform the “heavy work” the clean-up operation required.

According to Mr Guthrie, Mr Ash began working in late 2016 after meeting with Urban Renewal Commission Deputy Director Gregory Butler. He first worked on Bay Street, then the Centreville constituency for three months. Afterwards, Mr Ash was asked to take over three dump sites – the city dump, the dump at the sports centre, and Bacardi Road – Mr Guthrie said.

Doing such large amounts of work and employing so many workers meant Mr Ash was billing the government “large amounts of money,” the prosecutor said. But the government was slow to pay, despite owing Mr Ash upwards of $1m, the English attorney said. The contractor, Mr Guthrie said, “was desperate to be paid”.

Mr Guthrie said as a result of the slow payments, one of the people Mr Ash complained to was Jack Thompson, then the permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister. Mr Thompson consequently referred Mr Ash to Ms Bastian, through whom he eventually met Gibson.

At some point, a meeting between Mr Ash, Gibson, and Bastian was held at Gibson’s office at the Ministry of the Public Service on Meeting Street, Mr Guthrie said.

The English attorney said “almost immediately” after that meeting, Mr Ash began to make payments to Bastian. However, those payments were actually intended for and accepted by Gibson, the Crown argued. Mr Guthrie said after a while, Mr Ash started making the payments directly to the former Cabinet minister.

Thus, Mr Guthrie asserted that the payments were bribes and that if Mr Ash paid Gibson the requested amount, he would see to it that Mr Ash’s bills were paid “as night follows day”.

Gibson denies the allegations.