7 News Belize

Guatemalan Identity Thief "Guilty!"
posted (October 25, 2012)
You've heard a lot about Guatemala on the news tonight - and there's one more, this time some court news.

61 year-old Carlos Perez, a Guatemalan businessman residing on Handyside Street is at prison tonight after he was taken to Magistrate Court for a slew of immigration offences.

According to Immigration Officials, Perez went to the Belize City Immigration Department yesterday and tried to renew a Belizean passport, which he was using. The problem is that passport he was claiming as his belongs to Belizean Naim Matar, who resides in Chicago.

The authorities became suspicious and as a result, they conducted an investigation which revealed that there were some discrepancies with his application form for renewal.

They discovered that the real Matar had 3 siblings but Perez, on his form, declared that he had no brothers or sisters. When he did not return for the passport, the authorities realized that he might flee the country, and as result, they alerted the officials at the northern and western border.

He was apprehended in the Corozal District, and he was then arrested and formally charged with false representation of a passport which he wasn't entitled to use, using a document which he is not entitled to use, using a passport which he was not entitled to use, using a birth certificate he was not entitled to use, and using a border permit he wasn't entitled to use.

He was arraigned this afternoon before Magistrate Dale Cayetano, where he pleaded guilty to all the offences. He was fined a total of $10,500, which he was ordered to pay forthwith, or spend 2 total years in prison if he defaults.

He was not able to produce the money upfront, and as a result, he was taken to prison this evening, where he will remain until he is able to make payment.

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