A woman who was squatting on land and allegedly pretended to be the owner and obtained money from another woman for the property over a year ago was yesterday granted $150,000 bail by Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan.
Selena Khan, 43, of 12 Fourth Street, Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo, pleaded not guilty to false pretence at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
It is alleged that on September 23 2005 with intent to defraud, Khan obtained $400,000 from Debbie Perez by falsely pretending that she was the transported owner of a plot of land at O78 Section ‘C’ Turkeyen. She also pretended that she was in a position to sell the property to Perez.
Attorney-at-law Mishka Puran represented Khan and told the court that her client and Perez had an agreement and Khan sold to Perez a wooden house and not the land. The counsel said that Perez signed to the sale of the house. She added that her client was squatting on the land and only sold the house which she said is movable.
Perez, telling her side of the story, stated that Khan sold her the house and the land and afterwards she was unable to contact Khan because she was given a wrong address.
Police prosecutor Maxine Graham stated that Khan told Perez she was the owner of the land and house but she owned none of the two. She added that the police were looking for Khan but she evaded them and went to Venezuela and it was only after several checks for her that she was brought before the court.
Khan’s attorney responded that she may have gone on vacation.
The magistrate granted bail and Khan’s case was transferred to Court Three for March 23.
