Local News

A 61 year old Guatemalan national charged with five immigration offences was fined a total of $10,500.00 today after he pleaded guilty to the charges. He is Carlos Mauricio Rosal Perez, a businessman residing on Handyside Street. He was fined $500.00 for false representation of a Belizean passport that was in the name of Naim Matar, a Belizean who resides in Chicago, U.S.A. He was fined $3,000.00 for using a document he is not entitled to use $5,000.00.  For using a passport he is not entitled to use, $1,000.00 for using a birth certificate he is not entitled to use and $1,000.00 for using a border permit he is not entitled to use. Magistrate Dale Cayetano ordered him to pay the fines forthwith. If he defaults on payment he will serve two years because the sentences which amount to seven years are to run concurrently. Immigration Officers got on to Perez when he went to the Immigration Department in Belize City yesterday to renew the passport in the name of Naim Matar. His application was referred to the investigation department and it was found that there were some discrepancies in the information in his declaration. As a result, it was discovered that the real Niam Matar was residing in Chicago and that he had two brothers and a sister.  When Perez did not return to receive the passport from the immigration Department the northern border was alerted and Perez was apprehended at the Northern border in a black Mitsubishi Montero.