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Brazilian couple slapped with forgery charges

Aug 05, 2008 News

Defence Counsel Vic Puran has secured bail for a Brazilian couple who were charged for forging a Guyana Immigration entry stamp.

The couple, Vanessa De Souza and her husband, Antonio Carlos Pereira, made their appearance at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton.

The couple was jointly charged with conspiracy to commit a felony between July 28 and 29, when they allegedly conspired with a person or persons unknown with intent to defraud by forging a Guyana Immigration entry stamp in a Brazilian passport, CX 687469, in favour of Vanessa De Souza, purporting to show that she entered Guyana on July 28, knowing the same to be forged. The charge is indictable and the couple was not required to plead.

De Souza was further charged with uttering a forged document, in that on Wednesday July 30, with intent to defraud, she uttered to a police constable a forged Guyana Immigration entry stamp in her passport purporting to show that the same was issued by the Guyana Immigration Authority.

That, too, is indictable, and she was not required to plead. The woman was also charged with failing to present herself to an Immigration officer on July 18 at Moleson Creek when she entered Guyana. To that charge she pleaded not guilty.

In making a bail application, Puran sought to clarify whether the charge states that the entry stamp in the passport was forged.

“Your Worship, nothing about the stamps is bogus; the passport was stamped by an immigration officer, the problem is that the date was wrong on the stamp.”

“I would like to inform the court that an immigration officer has since been arrested for the same stamp,” Puran told the court.

He explained to the court that Pereira, who is a miner, entered the country legally, and was subsequently joined by his wife, De Souza, who is currently seven months’ pregnant.

Puran said that De Souza lost her passport on her way to Guyana, and upon arrival presented herself to the Brazilian Embassy, where she was issued with a new passport.

He further explained that, immediately after, she was advised to go to the immigration office to apply for an entry stamp.

According to Puran, after leaving the Brazilian Embassy, a taxi driver took the couple to the Central Immigration Office.

“The taxi driver went into the passport office, came outside and told my client that they would have to pay $22,000 for the application to be processed. It was an officer who stamped the wrong date on the passport,” Puran told the court.

Puran also argued that the Embassy has pledged to take full responsibility for the couple.

Throughout the hearing, the couple was assisted by an interpreter, Annemarie Hinds, an Embassy official.
However, police prosecutor Desiree Fowler objected to bail on the grounds that, given the fact the couple is from Brazil, if released on bail, they would not return for their trial.

At that point, both Puran and the magistrate reminded Fowler that the Brazilian Embassy has pledged to take responsibility for the couple. Fowler then withdrew her application.

Accordingly, bail was granted to the tune of $75,000 each for the conspiracy charge, and $25,000 for the uttering a forge document charge.

For the conspiracy to commit a felony charge and failing to present herself to Immigration officials, that matter will be called again on September 11 in Court One; while, for the utterance charge, De Souza will make her next court appearance on September 18 at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court.

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