A Venezuelan woman who entered Guyana illegally was yesterday fined $50,000 and ordered to be immediately deported when she appeared at the Georgetown Magis-trates’ Court.
Shirley Johanna Franko Marquez, through an interpreter, accepted that on June18 at Bartica she entered Guyana by sea and disembarked without the consent of an immigration officer.
The prosecution’s facts are that the Venezuelan national shares a common-law relationship with a Guyanese man in whose company she was at the Central Immigration and Passport Office when it was discovered that she had entered Guyana illegally.
Police Prosecutor Simone Payne who presented the facts said the defendant left Venezuela and travelled to Bartica by boat and disembarked without the consent of an immigration officer; and later travelled to Georgetown by bus where she met her reputed husband.
According to Payne, on June 20, the woman accompanied the man to the passport office where he had gone to apply for his passport.
While there, the court heard, the defendant was questioned by an immigration officer and it was discovered that she had entered Guyana illegally.
She was subsequently arrested by the officer and escorted to CID Headquarters where the matter was reported before she was arrested and charged.
After hearing the case, presiding Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton ordered the defendant to pay the $50,000 fine with immediate deportation or alternatively spend three months in prison with immediate deportation thereafter.
