US missionary, tourist fined, ordered deported for immigration breaches
Two Americans, one a missionary worker and the other a tourist, were yesterday both fined and ordered deported after they admitted to overstaying and illegal entry, respectively.
Richard Weldon Robins, 62, was read a charge which stated that between December 6, 2016 and January 16, 2017, at Lethem, having been permitted to stay from September 5, 2016 to December 5, 2016, he overstayed.
Robins pleaded guilty to the charge, which was read to him by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in a Georgetown court.
According to his attorney, Robins has been in Guyana since June, 2016 and had an extension. He noted that his client sought a second extension by travelling to Brazil, but was unable to be stamped back into the country.
Robins was said to have done work with non-governmental organisations in Region Nine, where he has aided in securing refrigeration for the storage of medication and in teaching Bible classes.
Police Prosecutor Deniro Jones told the court that it was during a raid conducted by police on February 16 at the Takutu Hotel, where Robins was staying, that it was discovered that he had overstayed.
Prior to being fined, Robins apologized to the court and expressed his desire to return to the country to complete the work he was conducting in Lethem.
Robins was then fined $30,000 or a default sentence of four weeks in jail if he is unable to pay it. He is to be escorted to the nearest port of exit after payment of the fine or serving the default sentence.
Meanwhile, 66-year-old Ronald Ray Horrer met a similar fate after he was charged with crossing a land frontier between October 1 and October 31, at Lethem, without presenting himself to an immigration officer.
He, too, did not waste the court’s time and pleaded guilty to the charge.
Horrer was also fined $30,000 or a default sentence of four weeks in jail. He will also be escorted to the nearest port of exit after payment of the fine or serving the default sentence. Anjanie Boodnarine, the common-law wife of convicted drug lord Barry Dataram, yesterday had another charge against her dismissed.
Boodnarine, who was charged with willfully attempting to defeat the administration of the law by leaving the jurisdiction, was told yesterday by city magistrate Leron Daly that the prosecution had failed to prove that she willfully left the jurisdiction. As a result, the court informed Boodnarine that she was free to go.
An elated Boodnarine thanked the magistrate and gleefully walked out of the courtroom.
She had been charged after she and Dataram left the country prior to the verdicts in their trial for alleged cocaine trafficking. He was convicted of the crime while she was not.
Boodnarine was last week also cleared of a charge that she forged a passport after another magistrate found that there was insufficient evidence led against her. She is still out on bail pending one other charge for allegedly failing to present herself to an immigration officer when leaving the country. This matter is being heard at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court.