Former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister Leslie Campbell has been fined $400,000 for failing to comply with a request from the Integrity Commission (IC) regarding his statutory declarations.
The fine, imposed by Senior Parish Judge Paula Blake-Powell in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Friday, has already been paid by the former lawmaker. Campbell, an attorney by profession, was found guilty in December 2023 following a trial into breaches of the Parliament (Integrity of Members) Act and the Integrity Commission Act.
The charges stemmed from Campbell’s failure to provide additional information about his assets and income, which the IC requested after he filed his statutory declarations while serving as Member of Parliament for North East St Catherine between 2016 and 2020.
Campbell, who later served as a Government Senator from September 2020 to May 2023, denied the allegations during the trial, insisting that the Commission had misplaced the documents he submitted. Despite this defense, Judge Blake-Powell found him guilty and gave him 90 days to comply fully with the IC’s request.
In determining the sentence, the judge took into account that Leslie Campbell had no previous convictions.
The Integrity Commission’s Director of Investigations, Kevon Stephenson, reported in 2023 that Campbell had been made aware of the Commission’s requests but failed to respond appropriately. The IC’s Director of Corruption Prosecution, Keisha Prince-Kameka, later ruled that Campbell should be prosecuted for breaching Section 15(1)(C) of the Parliamentary Integrity of Members Act and Section 43(1)(B) of the Integrity Commission Act.
In a June 2023 press release, Campbell’s attorneys said he was shocked by the Commission’s decision to press charges and called for an urgent review. His legal team also maintained that one of the pieces of information repeatedly requested — the surrender value of a Guardian Life Care Plus insurance policy — was irrelevant, as the policy had no surrender value.
