Boguszow Gorce. Former starost and mayor convicted of bribery. The police release a video of the handing over of the money

Jacek C. in the past served as the starost of Wałbrzych, and then the mayor of Boguszów-Gorc. The local government official was detained in December 2018, just a month after being sworn in.

However, as the prosecutor’s office established, he accepted the first bribe in the amount of PLN 10,000 while still a starost. At that time, it was about issuing a favorable administrative decision regarding the restoration of the right to drive motor vehicles.

Further offenses – already as mayor – include, among others, accepting a financial advantage in the amount of PLN 70,000 from one of the entrepreneurs performing work for the municipality in exchange for extending the performance of the contract regarding street lighting or paid protection consisting in referring to the influence of the Tax Office in Wałbrzych and the Tax Administration Chamber in Wrocław and undertaking to settle the matter in exchange for money.

In the course of the investigation, Jacek C.’s participation in the “unfounded cancellation of the tender for the sale of real estate” was also discovered, which exposed the commune to losses of PLN 4 million.

Read more: Despite the ongoing epidemic, they went to the polls and dismissed the mayor accused of corruption in a referendum

In March 2022, the court of first instance sentenced C. to 7 years in prison, a fine of PLN 15,000, and a six-year ban on holding positions in local government units. The sentencing judge said at the time that the evidence pointing to the guilt of the local government official was undeniable.

The same indictment also covered eight other people, including a councilor of the city of Boguszów-Gorc – Urszula M., whom the prosecutor accused of committing six crimes of buying votes for alcohol during the local government elections in 2018 and one crime of persuading witnesses to submit false testimony.

The indictment also included five people who were involved in so-called electoral corruption during the 2018 local elections. These people gave or accepted material benefits in the form of alcohol in exchange for voting in a certain way.

The other defendants were also found guilty by the court of the alleged acts and sentenced to terms of imprisonment with conditional suspension.

The defendants appealed against the sentence. On March 29, the Court of Appeal in Wrocław issued a final judgment in this case. He mostly upheld the sentence for Jacek C., but acquitted him of the fourth charge, i.e. acting to the detriment of the commune, under which he was supposed to give PLN 4 million to the local government.

The court’s final decision is 5 years and 3 months in prison for Jack C.

Officers from the anti-corruption department of the Voivodeship Police Headquarters in Wrocław discovered the official’s criminal activity in 2018. The collected evidence made it sufficiently probable that he had committed crimes of accepting bribes, but it was still necessary to obtain evidence unquestionably indicating the man’s guilt. Therefore, a stratagem was decided.

– Police officers, as part of operational and reconnaissance activities aimed at checking the previously obtained reliable information about the crime, with the consent of the district prosecutor, decided to carry out a controlled handing over of a financial advantage under the provisions of Article 19a of the Police Act, using secret video and sound recording. At the end of 2018, a person cooperating with the police met the then Mayor of Boguszów-Gorc and gave him a financial benefit of PLN 50,000 in a controlled manner in exchange for a promise to settle his case – says Tomasz Nowak from the press section of the Lower Silesian Police.

The official was arrested shortly thereafter. A few years later, after the final judgment was passed, the police published a recording of a bribe given to a local government official with the court’s consent.