A MOTORIST accused a security guard in Bao’an District of asking for bribes and promising to “take care of” his traffic violation in return, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

    The security guard defended himself, saying he only promised to help turn in the motorist’s driver’s license to the traffic police authority and never asked for money. The report said there is no evidence at the moment that would support the accusations of the driver, identified as Xu, against the security guard, and he was punished for his traffic violation.

    On one night in November, Xu was caught red-handed by traffic police while he was driving a medium-sized bus without a driver’s license. The bus was impounded by a traffic police officer and Xu was asked to go to the traffic division the next day.

    Based on relevant regulations, Xu would have 12 penalty points added to his driver’s license, which means that his driver’s license would be suspended, and pay a fine of 2,000 yuan (US$287.58) on top of spending up to 15 days in a detention center.

    However, Xu did not find the traffic police officer who had impounded the bus at his office the next day, which was a Saturday. He approached the security guard there to inquire about how to deal with his violations.

    According to Xu, the security guard, identified as Liu, said that he could help him avoid some of the punishments, such as having penalty points, so that Xu would not need to sit for the exams again to obtain a new license. Liu allegedly asked for 9,000 yuan to run the errands, and promised that the bus could be picked up in a few days.

    “I thought it would be much more convenient to just spend some money than to have penalty points,” said Xu. However, since he did not completely trust Liu, Xu only gave the guard his driver’s license, but did not pay him any money.

    Later that night, Liu called him and asked for the money, Xu alleged. But Xu said that he would pay Liu only after he had helped him out. Since then, Xu lost the security guard’s contact, so he cannot get his license back and was still punished.

    Xu found officers from the traffic division and was told that Liu had been fired because he attempted to take bribes.

    However, Liu refuted the accusations, saying that he did not have the authority to deal with Xu’s problem. All he could do was to deliver materials for some violators when the officers were not available. He also said that he left the job with the division in December last year.

    The division responded that they had not fired Liu, but instead the security guard quit himself. The division added that Xu’s license had been delivered to the officer on the same day Xu gave it to Liu.

    (Zhang Qian)