MANDEVILLE, Manchester — A former high school teacher and a businessman have been decommissioned as justices of the peace (JPs) in Manchester after being accused of charging fees for the voluntary service.

Custos of Manchester Garfield Green said the two men were brought before an ethics committee in recent weeks, following two years of accusations against them.

“Section 15 of the JP Act speaks of offering JP services free of charge to the community members, and it is totally forbidden for JPs to be charging for JP services. I have received numerous complaints over the past two years about the same two people, who I had warned because we never had hard evidence. I had warned both of them,” said Green.

“I received more complaints as they continued this year, and I was able to get some evidence against them. They were investigated and, as a result, will be removed from the office of JP,” added Green.

He accused the two JPs of arranging their services as a business venture.

“It seems as if people set it up as a business, and they use the opportunity to charge people — people who they can easily influence to pay, people who they think can pay without questioning. There are instances where recommendations were written for persons who they did not know,” the custos explained.

“We brought them before the ethics committee at my office that deals with all complaints against the justices of the peace, and recommendations were made against both of them to have them decommissioned,” he said while adding that he previously removed two JPs for charging for their services.

Green said the men are ages 46 and 44 and were commissioned as JPs in recent years.

“In this case I asked them to turn in their certificates of the instrument of office. They are two young people. One of them was commissioned as a young JP in recent times by me, the other one was commissioned by the previous custos. One of them was commissioned in 2015,” he said. The other was commissioned in 2021.

Custos Green, meanwhile, suggested that the decommissioned JPs should face sanctions.

“There should be something that deters them from doing it,” he said.

“I spoke to Minister [Delroy Chuck] about it. [As it stands now,] if JPs charge for their service they can only be removed from office [as] it is not a criminal offence. However, if a JP writes a recommendation for someone he does not know, it is considered a criminal offence and the police can get involved and charge the JP,” he explained.

“It is a voluntary service but some people, once they are in they start complaining that it is costing them too much, it is taking up too much of their time. And I have said to some of them, ‘If it is taking up too much of your time and it is costing you, resign,’ ” added Green.

He reiterated that the service is voluntary and JPs should resign if they cannot manage their role.

“You can resign as a justice of the peace. Give it up. Don’t force yourself to continue. No one is forcing you to be a justice of the peace; it is something that you step forward to do — and you can also step back from doing it,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say they are extorting the money because people agree to pay them — either because the people are desperate, [or] they don’t know them and they pay them to do something. In that case it really should be a criminal offence because you are writing a recommendation for someone who you don’t know. You don’t know the character of the person, you don’t know what they are going to use the recommendations for. You don’t know if they are going to get a driver’s licence under a different name,” added Green.