Cop denied bail in $3m oil theft case
Published:Tuesday | January 10, 2023 | 1:23 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
The police corporal implicated in a multimillion-dollar cooking oil theft was on Monday denied bail when he appeared in the St Catherine Parish Court.
Detective Corporal Maurice Whittingham, 35, who is charged with robbery with aggravation and kidnapping, is to return to court on February 7.
Whittingham is jointly charged with 34-year-old construction worker Michael Daley, who is facing similar charges. However, no bail application was made for the latter.
During the bail application, Whittingham’s lawyer, Vincent Wellesley, argued that his client is not a flight risk and had a constitutional right to bail
He also told the court that his client is diabetic and requires medication twice daily.
However, the judge turned down the application after the prosecutor submitted that there was interfere with witnesses in the matter.
Allegations are that on Saturday, December 17, 2022, Daley and Whittingham stopped a delivery truck laden with cooking oil valued at more than $3 million along the Spanish Town Bypass in St Catherine.
It is alleged that Whittingham approached the driver of the truck and asked about his data entry record and took him to a Honda motor car.
The truck, along with the sidemen, was then driven to an unknown location and the empty truck later recovered.
Investigations led to Daley and Whittingham being charged.