–court hears
A 40-year-old immigration officer was placed on $250,000 bail when she appeared before the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday on charges of forgery and corrupt transaction by a government agent.
Jan Lovell of 119 Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara pleaded not guilty to four charges of forgery and four charges of corrupt transaction by a government agent.
It is alleged that on December 9, 18, 24 and 30 last year at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, Lovell forged one Guyana immigration entry stamp by changing the date on the said stamp in favour of Deonarine Balkissoon, Passport #1187663; Andel Gibson, Passport #0793952; Abassi McPherson, Passport #0904723; and Marc Anthony Mayers, Passport #A41223, respectively.
Further it is alleged that on December 9, 18, 24 and 30 last year at CJIA, the immigration officer being an agent of the Guyana Police Force corruptly received US$50, US$50, US$50 and TT$300 from Deonarine Balkissoon, Andel Gibson, Abassi McPherson and Marc Anthony Mayers respectively as inducement or reward.
Prosecutor Denise Griffith made no objection to bail but she pointed out that the Golden Grove address provided to the court by Lovell’s attorney conflicted with the address on file. Griffith said that the woman’s address was stated as 286 Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara in her file.
Attorney-at-law Adrian Thompson explained to the court that when his client first started working with the force she resided at that address but it has now been changed to the one he provided to the court.
He further told the court that Lovell has been a member of the police force for twelve years and has been an immigration officer for the entire period. According to the lawyer, the woman is still a member of the force but is currently receiving only half her salary.
After listening to the lawyer’s submission Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry granted Lovell bail in the sum of $250,000. The case was transferred to the Providence Magistrate’s Court and will continue on September 8.
it doesnt matter if others was doing it. she was caught and she has to deal with her puinishment for the crime. an i AGREE with Susan the media had no right to put the people’s passport information out. thatsa huge privacy matter.
Leisalle? did you read my point on the need for ACCURATE MEDIA REPORTING.
SN has borne the brunt of the police and the presenditial secretariat on alleged
iinaccurate media reporting.
Privacy or not ( agreed that privacy is being violated but only by NA standards),
but in Guyana it does not matter.
I love reading the online version of this paper, but am very distressed about the manner in which many stories are reported. Take for instance this story, the writer of the article did not tell readers how changing the date stamp impacted the immigrant (what benifits were derived from theaction). Please Mr. editor demand more from your “reporters”. Another issue is the naming of the passport numbers. What significance is passport number to your readers? Good story telling/reporting covers every angle to the story, something I find disturblingly lacking in the local print media.
Ulric,
Don”t compare.
Local reporting has some yardsticks to comply with and those are totally
different from NA”s
The charge was one of forgery and was done by an official officially.;
It is not material to the case as to what benefit was derived except of course
the passing of cash, which benefitted the forger.
Additionally, I am not sure tha all internet reports are as per the hard copy
reports. The Moderator could perhaps offer a comment on this.
IMHO the report was sufficiently informative.
Moderator’s note: Internet reports in the main are identical. The details sought by Ulric would only be available once the trial starts. Passport nos. are an integral part of the evidence.
I see lots of y’all don’t understand reporting especially when it comes to this sort of crime…the basic reason why SN has to mention the passport numbers is because LOTS OF PEOPLE IN GT HAS THE SAME NAMES. What if one was Ramesh Persaud (being fictitious), or Fazal Mohamed (being fictitious), or Orin Williams (being fictitious), how many people would be wrongfully blamed for the crime because of the similarity in names?
People remember… a name is just a name, NOT a person, but a number IS a person, much more effective in identification of a person. Y’all get it now?
Give SN a break, they did the right thing.
Well, well….what can i say about this situation…..hmmmm. I think the bribe she took was too little.lol. If in this hard times this officer is taking US$50.00 this a shame to immigration officers of the pass. In the late 90s an entry stamp was price at USD$100.00, now it reduce by half. One would think that an entry stamp almost 10 years on would have been somewhere around USD$200.00, I guess the demand is not there anymore or things have gotten really bad at the Airport.
Why would one need and entry stamp?
1. If you over stayed you time in another country, such as Barbados, Antigua, even the US etc and have intentions of going back, you would approach an understanding Immigration officer who would assist you, at a afford cost, by back dating your entry stamp. In the olden days, if you stayed out for too long on your return the entry stamp may have change and this would make it difficult for your entry to be back dated, since it would be a clear give away, to both the passenger and officer. Sometimes officers would just stamp your passport and allow you to put a date and signiture.
2. if you enter the country illegally and want to stay. ie. Brazilians and other South American nationals. Invasion from the south and west.
3.If you enter the country Illegally but using this port at a transit point. Here number one (1) is applied and now you will need an even more set of understanding immigration officers, Airline personnel, Airport Security to leave the country, which is done at an affordable cost and this type of departure is know as Backtracking. This situation is more common with African Nationals coming through Brazil, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani Nationals.
These are just some of the reasons you may need and entry stamp. Anyway, this is the first i have heard an incident of this nature is before the court, where the immigration Officer is in the hot seat.
Ok bloggers I’m not advocating corrupt practices here and I do applaud the move to end this practise.
Hey Pepie!
Man you sure have it all in your memory chips.
Thanks for the elucidation.
None of it did I know of.
Good work guy. This is the info I needed, when I querried the impact of changing dates re the immigrant. Thanks
I guess the big question is, who else is involed in such scam, ’cause I’m sure she is not the only one.
this is sad, of course, that our people still have to live like this.
Anyways, why does veecock think he has to rebut everything?
others have an opinion too.
Sad, why you say sad that we still have to live like this? Where have you been these past few years, on Mars?
I agree with allison Carl should take a break now
Good luck to the others that left there I was there and did my thing as well but, there comes a time when u show move on and Ms Lovell think different
HEY FORDE [SQUADE] I SUPPORT SOME OF WHAT YOU SAID, BUT YOU AND I KNOW MANY THINGS GET SWEPT UNDER THE RUG IN THAT DEPARTMENT.
good for internal affairs
….. internal affairs ,, is just another bird of the same colour ! the malcontents ford-clark and,, anderson ,, is indicative of the contempt they had for the job from which they made a living and the people who paid them to do the job ! i have said it b4 ,, many,, who after their concerted abuse of the system ,, have now found themselves in various societies ,, where it’s not surprising to find that they r living the same shameful life ,, habits die hard !
She was not working alone, there are more officers in this …….. i hear about this about 2 -3 times a month.
ULRIC MAKE A VALID POINT, THE NEWS WAS NOT PROPERLY REPORTED. WHAT HAPPEN AFTER THE DATES CHANGE?????????????/ TELL ME I NEED TO KNOW ALL. THIS IS NOT A SHORT SHORY TO BE LEFT IN SUSPENCE. WE ALL AT SOME TIME HAD TO PAY BRIBE TO FOR FAVOR, PEOPLE MAY NEED TO LEAVE, THUS THE USES OF THE IMMIGARTION. BRIBERY GOES ON EVERY WAY IN GUYANA. GUYANA HAS BECOME A VERY HARD PLACE TO SURVIVE, TO GET FAVORS GRANTED. EVERY ONE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING, WE NEVER KNOW WHAT WE WILL DO UNTIL WE ARE FACED WITH A SITUATION, THIS TOPIC WILL HAVE A LOT OF COMMENTS, CUS IT IS A MATTER OF GRAVE CONCERT, AFTER ALL IS GUYANA AND GUYANESE, WE ALL KNOW ABOUT IT……………THANKYOU, PEACE FELLLOW GUYANA
ha, ha, ha, laugh like brer rabbit. This is how we do it.