A court clerk has made legal history as he became the first person to be jailed under new bribery legislation.
Munir Patel, 22, used his privileged access to the court system to help more than 50 offenders avoid prosecution in exchange for sums of up to £500, Southwark Crown Court was told.
He has been handed a three-year prison term for bribery and ordered to serve six years concurrently for misconduct in a public office.
Patel remained impassive as Judge Alistair McCreath told him: "It hardly needs saying that these were very serious offences. They involved a very substantial breach of trust. Your position as a court clerk had at its heart a duty to public confidence in it.
"A justice system in which officials are prepared to take bribes in order to allow offenders to escape the proper consequences of their offending is inherently corrupt and is one which deserves no public respect and which will attract none."
Police believe Patel helped at least 53 individuals evade prosecution for driving offences by tampering with the system so their cases would effectively be dropped.
He also advised on how to avoid being summoned to court while working in an administrative capacity at Redbridge Magistrates' Court in east London, on a salary of £17,978.
For this he was paid a total of at least £20,000. The court heard that £53,814 in cash was deposited in his bank account while another £42,383 was transferred into the same account, both without explanation.
Turning to those who escaped punishment because of Patel's actions, the judge said: "This indictment represents misconduct which lasted well over a year and involved at least 53 cases in which you manipulated the process in order to save offenders from the consequences of their offending - fines, penalty points and disqualification."
Jailing Patel, of Green Lane, Dagenham, east London, the judge said there were "no sentencing guidelines" with which to work, given that the case was the first of its kind under the new legislation.
