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Here's a few of the tough questions that the Senators had for him:

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"And you also mentioned in your statement that the decision to issue Belize visas without stickers was approved by Cano."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Absolutely."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"Did you agree to this, did you participate in this?"

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"We were all a part of it. The five of us supervisors were in complete communication with each other and discussing the possible way forward; because you know at the border there are visa applicants coming in every minute. The work, because not only are we law enforcement agents you know, we are revenue collectors as well; we must be cognizant of that. We have a dual role to play at the border. We are not sheerly law enforcement. We have border permits to issue, we have visas to issue, we have student visas to issue, you know, we have visitors permits to issue; it's government business. And the government's business must continue."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"Why did you not involve your director?"

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Because mam, there are different levels of reporting. I can't go directly to the director."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"But you're the senior person and if your person immediately above you who is on leave, why not call the director?"

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Madam Senator, I can safely say, I didn't expect that man to react like that."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"I know, I understand."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"I expected him to take it on take it forward."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"Mr. Leslie I understand what you're saying, but I'm asking why? And the follow up question would a report have been made to the director, because it would appear that in a situation as seriously significant as the missing visas, you all got together to work out a strategy to keep it there, as oppose to reporting it as it ought to have been reported."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"We didn't keep it there mam, we put it to the port commander who was expected to do his duty."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"No, if you are saying that he did not do his duty- and there maybe instances where we feel our supervisors are not doing what they are supposed to do- but you have a responsibility as a public officer to report above. And you're not really reporting above. Because the chain of command right now with Mr. Cano out is the director directly above you, above all of you. So any of you could have picked up the phone, all of you who are supervisors there could have picked up the phone and say: director we have an issue, 8 visas missing, we talked to Mr. Cano, he's on leave but we need think we need to sort this out. But nobody did that and so I'm asking why."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Having hindsight, you're right we should have ensured that the report was received by the director. But it was not a failure on my behalf because I did what I'm being paid to do, I did what I'm trained to do- I passed it to the superior officer at the border, which is Mr. Cano."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"In Mr. Cano's report, dated the 17th of January 2013, Mr. Cano claims that he spoke with Officer Leslie on the matter in which he informed me that he had made his decision to pay for the visas."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Yes, I saw his report but this is Mr. Cano's attempt to get off the hook. It's another attempt where he is consistently shirking his responsibilities, shirking his command, and trying to put on us."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"I'm reading your own report dated the 16th of January 2013 in which you say: 'in hindsight it may not have been the best decision but I suggested to Mr. Cano that to avoid embarrassment and extreme revenue losses we could still collect the revenue by using the missing foils numbers and issuing official revenue collectors receipts. Mr. Cano wasn't too enthusiastic about this solution but solution but eventually Mr. Cano gave me his consent. We felt that maybe this would save us great embarrassment.' I'm reading from your report, in which you are saying that you suggested."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"I was suggesting that- we as a group suggested, I'm not gonna put my eye there but it was a group suggestion. And also at my level, as an immigration assistant, I cannot make those decisions. It's the port commander that has the responsibility to make those kinds of decisions."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"I'm not saying that I'm convinced of it, but it appears that the five of you at the western border station was missing. And you said: well we need to do something about this without headquarters finding out about this. And you embarked on your own investigation without involving the director, without involving anybody else in authority other than the five of you. And that you found a way in which you wouldn't have been accountable because as far as Belmopan was going to be concerned, the visas were issued there were no missing visa foils, nobody was reconciling stubs so it would have blown over like a breeze."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"I respectfully disagree with you chairman."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"You are purporting to issue a visa foil bearing a certain number which never issued, which you knew to be false. You were issuing a number on a visa application, pretending, is the only word that comes to my mind, as if that foil was affixed to that visa and it wasn't."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Nevertheless, you might be right chairman, but what I'm saying is that I couldn't have caused that to happen."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"I'm not saying you caused it, but what we are looking at is your involvement on how it was handled, after it was discovered that the visas were missing. We're not saying you caused it, that you didn't steal it, we are saying that you were involved in a decision to take..."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"A decision that was made by my port commander and sanctioned by my port commander."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"But I'm also concerned with a process which could be manipulated because if it was that five supervisors could make a decision to pretend as if visa foils were issued, when those visa foils were missing and nobody was reconciling stubs in Belmopan. Then I think that this system could have been manipulated easily with the same wet-stamp, many times. And no foils were being placed in passports, you put a wet-stamp or you put whatever numbers you want- no reconciliation. I'm not saying you did it you know, I'm not casting any aspersions, I want to be clear. But I'm looking to see where the system could have been manipulated because we've already seen that it was manipulated so if the five of you could have thought about this in half day then I'm sure somebody else could have thought about it before and I'm wondering if this wasn't room for abuse previously or by other officers because if this wasn't as a result of eight visa foils then we probably would have never found out about this."

Vernon Leslie- Immigration Officer
"Chairman, I can assure you that was not an unnormal practice."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"Yeah, I mih know that, it's abnormal and regular."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"It's an unfortunate event, incident, and it was just a countermeasure to gain us some time so that we could find out who the real perpetrators were. And therefore, I have no difficulty in refuting that. That was the practice of our immigration officers, or has been the practice; because that was a special situation."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"My concern is where a visa is required if somebody could have simply put a wet stamp in it and collect $50 dollars from the person and let them pass through."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"But that wasn't done in this case, sir."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"Yes, it was. It was done."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"No, the visa application filled out."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"It was done. You put a wet stamp on a passport where you shouldn't have put a wet stamp and collected for it. It went to government."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"The application process went through. It was done; we vetted that application and a genuine receipt..."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga, Senator
"We have heard other people speak about a culture of wrong doing and not following procedures will you discuss some of them? Can you tell us about the culture you've seen?"

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"You mean the culture within Immigration? I have no knowledge of that culture, sir."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga, Senator
"You have no knowledge of a culture within the immigration..."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Me, I go to work and I expect from each and anyone of these immigrations that are under my command to do their duty diligently and honestly and transparently. I'm not aware of that culture, I really am."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga, Senator
"You've never been a part of any scheme?"

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Sir, I have 32 years in this job, you know. I take it very seriously that I do my job professionally, transparently and honestly. I take great pride that I have not been held up in any investigation, until now."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga, Senator
"And you are not been aware of any schemes in the department?"

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"Well, on my level, which is very low, I am not aware of any scheme; maybe on the upper levels where I have no knowledge about."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"And what would you call it when five immigration officers sit down and work out a way of ensuring that nobody finds out that eight visas went missing."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"I've always held myself up to the highest integrity; and whatever occurred on December 2012 was one out of a million things that happen that time. And we at no time attempted to cover up. Everything was being done according to the book. We did our job, we reported to our port commanders."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"I won't ask the question again Mr. Leslie, thanks."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"No, you are saying that we were covering up Senator."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, Senator
"No, that's what you all said. You said that you all did it that way so that it would save embarrassment and all of those, that's what covering up means."

Vernon Leslie - Immigration Officer
"No mam, we did it in the best interest of our country."

As you heard, Vernon Leslie was insistent that his superior officer, Edgar Cano, sanctioned the fix they employed to sell visas to legitimate applicants using the numbers of the 8 missing visa foils. That way, it appeared that those stolen visas weren't missing at all. Cano has already gone before the Senate to refute that, saying he never approved that decision. One of the many cases of "he said, he said" to come out of the hearings so far.