Cuban dentist fined for overstaying

- to face trial over forged passport stamps

A Cuban dentist was on Monday fined $50,000 for overstaying and placed on a total of $300,000 bail after blaming “ignorance” for charges of conspiracy to forge an immigration stamp and uttering a forged document that were also read to her.

Eileen Aguila appeared before Magistrate Judy Latchman and was read a charge which stated that between September 12 and September 14, 2016, at Georgetown, with the intent to defraud, she conspired with a person or persons to forge Guyana Immigration Service arrival and departure stamps in a Republic of Cuba passport.

A second charge was read which stated that on January 18, at Moleson Creek, Berbice, with intent to defraud, she uttered to Immigration Officer 21708 Yazir Sugrim, a Republic of Cuba passport with the forged stamps.

It is also alleged that Aguila, being granted permission to stay in Guyana from July 15 to August 15, 2016 overstayed.

Although the 29-year-old woman pleaded guilty to all charges, her pleas for the first two were changed by the magistrate after she explained that her guilt was as a result of her ignorance. She added that she did not know that the stamps were false until she went to apply for a job.

According to Police Prosecutor Shawn Gonsalves, Aguila arrived in Guyana through the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and she was granted a one-month stay. On completion of her stay, the defendant on September 13, 2016, gave a man she identified as “Carlos” her passport and US$200 to acquire an extension of stay for her.

The man claimed that he would get her a three-month extension.

Aguila was later arrested on January 18 when she went to Moleson Creek in an attempt to travel to Suriname and the forged stamps were observed in her passport.

When granted the opportunity, the Two dredge operators were both remanded to prison on Monday after they were charged with trafficking cannabis into the interior.

Carlos Ross, 43, of Lot 101 Third Avenue, Bartica, and Sherlock Goodridge, 31, of Lot 6 De Kinderen, West Coast Berbice, pleaded not guilty to the charge that on January 9, at the Itaballi Police Checkpoint, they had in their possession 25 grammes of cannabis for trafficking.

Ross also pleaded not guilty to a separate charge alleging that he had 4 grammes of cannabis in his possession.

Attorney Mark Conway, who represented the men, told Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan that while at the Itaballi police checkpoint, the men were travelling in a lorry with 30 other persons. The lawyer said that the drugs were not found in the possession of either Ross or Goodridge but on a truck with other people. As a result, he asked that the men be released on reasonable bail.

But police prosecutor Deniro Jones claimed that while the defendants were passengers on a lorry when they were approached by the police at the checkpoint, Goodridge was seen by police placing a bag under a seat. When the police got hold of the bag, he added, they found what appeared to be cannabis. Jones added that when Goodridge was arrested, he told the police that Ross gave him the bag of cannabis to hide. As a result, he objected to the men being released on bail.

Chief Magistrate McLennan subsequently remanded both men to prison until February 3, when the case will be called again at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court.