KINGSTON, Jamaica — A medical doctor was fined $400,000 in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday for failing to file his statutory declarations with the Integrity Commission (IC).

Dr Edward Campbell was charged with failing to file his statutory declarations with the IC without reasonable cause for the periods 2016 and 2017. Campbell pleaded guilty to the charges when he appeared before Presiding Judge Alwayne Smith.

His attorney, Kerry-Gaye Swaby, told the court that her client has since filed the statutory declarations and expressed his sincere apologies.

“The defendant expresses his sincere apologies to the court for the oversight and he has since moved with alacrity to rectify the situation as soon as he was served. Your honour, we do not appear to be presumptuous but Dr Campbell is truly contrite and, in the circumstances, we are in your honour’s hands in terms of what type of punishment that Dr Campbell receives,” said Swaby.

However, the court was told that the outstanding declarations were filed in February of this year. The prosecution also noted that a letter was sent to Campbell in 2021 notifying him of the outstanding declarations in which the doctor reportedly signed.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Smith questioned the length of time it took for the declarations to be filed and noted that he had to send a message to Dr Campbell and his colleagues.

“I have to send a message to the good doctor and his colleagues and also I have to be sensitive. I am not absolved of the fact of how pressuring it can be to comply with the statutory obligations. Perhaps two years, three years one would say yes but all of those years. It is a very untidy state of presentation to the court. It is certainly something I have to acknowledge when I pass the sentence down,” the judge said.

Campbell was fined $200,000 or three months’ imprisonment for each year.

— Vanassa McKenzie