A Venezuelan teenage girl who entered Guyana illegally by sea at Pomeroon was yesterday fined $50,000 and ordered to be deported when she appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Eighteen-year-old Johanna Adreina Villarrial Heredad, through an interpreter, accepted the August 14 charge which stated that at Pomeroon, Essequibo, she entered Guyana by sea and disembarked without the consent of an immigration officer.
Heredad’s attorney said that his client came to Guyana in search of her fiancé.
He begged the court for lenience and the imposition of a nominal fine in handing down its ruling. He also asked the court for a non-custodial sentence.
Inspector Burgett Grant who presented the prosecution’s case said that the Venezuelan national entered Guyana on August 14 via Pomeroon without travel documents and thereafter failed to present herself to the nearest immigration officer.
According to Grant, the teen then proceeded to Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo where she stayed with a Guyanese friend.
The prosecutor added that on August 16, the young woman was standing on the Tuschen Public Road when she was approached by the police who after speaking to her, discovered that she was in the country illegally.
The court heard that the defendant was then taken to the Criminal Investigation Department where she was later arrested and charged.
The court ordered an alternative six-month prison sentence if Heredad is unable to pay the fine.
