A woman agreed to accept “lunch and a drink” from another in exchange for not inputting a parking ticket into a monitoring system, a court heard.

Paula Thomas, 65, admitted agreeing to accept the bribe made by Cassandra Trott and to not issue her a summons “in anticipation of” being offered another reward.

Thomas, from Smith’s, appeared in Magistrates’ Court yesterday, when she also pleaded guilty to lying about the status of a parking ticket to benefit Aneika Francis.

Thomas committed the offences between July 2019 and January 2022, when she was working for the Corporation of Hamilton.

She was also charged with agreeing to accept “a few drinks” from Trott,and attempting to pervert the course of justice by concealing a summons issued to herself as a result of having parking tickets, but those charges were dropped yesterday.

Prosecutors also dropped a charge that Thomas and 50-year-old Lindell Foster, who was another corporation employee, did not put another parking ticket into the system “with intent to cause loss to the Corporation of Hamilton”.

A city spokeswoman said in April 2023 that both women were “placed on administrative leave” while their cases were being processed.

The spokeswoman said after today’s appearance: “The courts have issued their verdict, and we respect their decision.

“As this matter pertains to internal HR processes, we will not be providing any further comment."

Trott, 57, from Pembroke, received a conditional discharge in July 2023 after she admitted offering or promising Thomas “lunch and a drink” and a “few drinks” as a reward for not processing her parking tickets.

Magistrate Craig Attridge dismissed Ms Foster, from Devonshire, and ordered that a social inquiry report be written for Thomas.

Mr Attridge adjourned the case to February 13 for sentencing and extended Thomas’s bail until that time.

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