MUSIC producer and politician Patrick Roberts is scheduled to appear in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court in Half-Way-Tree to answer fraud charges on Thursday, June 24.

Principal of Shocking Vibes and local government representative in the Molynes Gardens Division for the People’s National Party (PNP), Roberts was on Thursday charged with forgery, uttering forged documents, and conspiracy to defraud after he was questioned by police.

He was released on $300,000 station bail.

Roberts is being represented by Queen’s Counsel Peter Champagnie.

“Other than repeating, with emphasis, what my client has said, which is that he has done absolutely nothing wrong, I am not prepared to go beyond that,” Champagnie told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“The matter is now before the court,” he continued.

With a discography loaded with hit songs, including Beenie Man’s Who Am I? (Sim Simma), World Dance, Girls Dem Sugar, and Wickedest Slam, Roberts is among Jamaica’s most successful music producers.

This is not Roberts’ first run-in with the law. In April 2010 he was charged with illegal possession of firearm after his licensed firearm, a Taurus revolver, was taken from a man who had reportedly engaged police in a shoot-out on Waltham Park Road in St Andrew.

In his defence, the producer told the lawmen he was unaware his gun had been missing. The charge was subsequently dropped. However, following a ruling by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paula Llewellyn, he was then charged with failing to renew a firearm licence and causing the loss of a firearm through negligence.

At his peak in the 1990s, Shocking Vibes recorded top Jamaican artistes, including ‘Crew’ members Tanto Metro and Devonte, Snagga Puss and General B. Dennis Brown, Buju Banton, Lt Stitchie, Tiger, Mad Cobra, Capleton, Buccaneer, Sanchez, Wayne Wonder, Richie Stephens, Jack Radics, Lady Saw, and Ghost also did songs for the label.

In terms of social work, Roberts served as chairman of Craig Town Youth Organisation, which enabled youngsters from St Andrew Southern to stage Jamaica’s first Inner City Peace Conference in the 1980s.

He also assisted them to start projects such as a profitable block factory and a callaloo and pak choi garden.

After a successful stint, Roberts gave up presidency of the Arnett Gardens Football Club in 2018.

Conceptualiser of Ghetto Splash — an annual free stage show held during the Yuletide season in Drewsland, Waterhouse — Roberts was invested in the Order of Distinction for his contribution to Jamaica’s music in 2019.