THE ABSENCE of a defence witness yesterday forced Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey to grant an early adjournment in the case of Superintendent Harry 'Bungles' Daley.

Daley is on trial in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court for allegedly breaching the Corruption Prevention Act.

Prosecutor Dirk Harrison yester-day accused the defence of dragging out the case after attorney-at-law Valerie Neita Robertson said the defence witness who should have testified Tuesday was not available yesterday.

Neita-Robertson assured the court that the witness would be available today.

Allegations don't fit

Character evidence was given yesterday by retired Senior Super-intendent of Police Dudley Bryan. He described Daley as a straight-forward, hard-working and honest person.

He said he was surprised when he heard of the allegations because they did not fit Daley's character.

Daley was arrested in Kingston on July 31 last year during a sting operation in which he was allegedly held with $15,000 in marked notes.

He was held shortly after he allegedly collected the money from the complainant Tafari Clarke.

The Crown is alleging that between May 2007 and July 2008 Daley collected a total of $65,000 from Clarke as protection money for a plaza at Ewarton, St Catherine.

Daley has denied collecting protection money from Clarke and said the money was for a loan he made some years ago to a relative of the complainant.