Venezuelan fined $10,000 for tampered passport

AN 18-YEAR-OLD Venezuelan student was ordered yesterday to pay $10,000 for tampering with a passport.

Marilyn Ramirez of Caracas pleaded guilty.

The matter was heard before senior magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court. Prosecutor PC Cleyon Seedan told the court a team of police from the Port of Spain CID and Immigration officers searched the Fore Play Hotel & Bar on Bertrand Street, San Fernando, and arrested Ramirez.

She was interviewed by Immigration officers who, on April 5, later discovered her passport had been tampered with. The court heard the stamp which granted Ramirez an extension of her stay in the country was fraudulent and pages were missing from the passport.

The tampered passport was produced to the court.

Attorney Chris Ramlal represented the teenager. Through Spanish-language interpreter Moonilal Ragbir, the court heard Ramirez was a dentistry student in Venezuela. However, the attorney said owing to the economic situation there, Ramirez had to drop out of school.

Ramlal said Ramirez lived with her grandmother in Caracas, as her parents were in prison in Venezuela. “Her father is in prison for the past seven years and her mother is in prison for the past three months,” he said.

Ramirez entered this country legally, he said, and believed the stamp granting her an extension was valid. Ramlal asked the magistrate to consider his client’s age in passing sentence.

The magistrate asked what the teenager was doing at the hotel on the day of her arrest and was told she was liming with friends. Seedan said she was arrested at the bar area. Failure to pay the fine would result in Ramirez serving six months in prison. She was given six weeks to pay.