Indian national, Groopanan Kumar, was yesterday sentenced to six months imprisonment and fined $30,000 for overstaying his time in Guyana.
The sentence was handed down by Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton after the court was presented with the defendant’s passport which it needed to examine. After examining two passports belonging to the defendant, the presiding magistrate declared: “The new one is blank and the old one is expired.”
Initially, Magistrate Octave-Hamilton had handed down a 12-month prison sentence. However, after noting that the defendant did not waste the court’s time, she shortened the sentence by six months.
The magistrate explained that Kumar pleaded guilty at the first instance, saving the court considerable time by not having to conduct a trial.
On Wednesday, Kumar pleaded guilty to the charge of overstaying.
The charge against the defendant is that between September 5, 2010 and August 15, 2011 at Georgetown, he failed to comply with the conditions of the permit he had been granted to stay in Guyana from September 4, 2009 to September 4, 2010, overstaying the said period.
The prosecution indicated to the court that the facts were as charged after which no further details of what transpired were presented to the court.
The magistrate had deferred sentencing for yesterday since the court needed to be fortified with specifics regarding the defendant’s passport.
