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Polish man faces 10 years in jail for fudge bribery
A Polish man arrested by police on suspicion of drunk cycling faces up to 10 years in prison after allegedly attempting to bribe the police officers with two pieces of chocolate fudge.
The man apparently offered the fudge cake to the officers as he sat in their patrol car Photo: BON APPETIT
By Matthew Day, Warsaw 5:20PM GMT 22 Dec 2010
Prosecutors have charged the man, known only as Leszek, with being drunk in charge of a bicycle and attempting to pass on "material benefits" to the police.
The man apparently offered the fudge to the officers as he sat in their patrol car after being found asleep beside his bike by a road in the eastern town of Minsk Mazowiecki.
"I had only had two beers," Leszek told the TVN24 television news channel.
"Anyway they put me in the back of the car, and I said 'gentlemen would you like some fudge as an act of kindness, and can you let me go because I live right next door'?"
But police took a dim view of the suspect's claim of generosity.
"While it is easy to smile at this situation you have to remember that this is the police, and situations have to be interpreted on the basis of law," said Sergeant Rafal Jarocki, reflecting a desire by Polish authorities to crack down on the once common habit of bribing police officers to avoid petty charges.
Leszek's alleged bribery attempt means that he now faces a possible jail sentence 10 times longer than the one-year sentence he may have received for drunk cycling.
