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By DON MACPHERSON
macpherson.don@dailygleaner.com

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A provincial court judge has denied a discharge request from a Burton man who solicited an undercover police officer for sex this spring.

William Garth Reid, 44, of 21 Christopher Dr. previously pleaded guilty to a May 8 charge of attempting to solicit a prostitute.

Crown prosecutor William Corby said the charge arose from an undercover operation the Fredericton Police Force staged on Union Street earlier this year.

At about 12:30 a.m. on May 8, he said, Reid approached a police officer who was posing as a prostitute.

"During the course of the conversation, he offered her money for sex," Corby said, and Reid was arrested.

Defence lawyer Gerald Pugh said his client has no prior criminal record and requested that a conditional discharge be granted.

"Mr. Reid is a person of good character," he said.

Such a discharge would mean the defendant wouldn't have a criminal record for the offence once he fulfilled certain conditions.

Pugh said Reid was prepared to pay a standard fine and to make a donation to Transition House as conditions of a discharge.

"(It was) a lack of judgment, and I'm sorry," Reid told the court.

Judge Graydon Nicholas didn't grant the discharge request. Instead, he imposed a fine totalling $345.

The city police have also charged eight other men in connection with the undercover sting, dubbed Operation Free Flow.