An elderly Berbice man was on Tuesday brought before a city court on a charge that he used a forged birth certificate in a bid to get a US visa.
Charransain Pitham, 60, was charged with uttering a forged document.
The charge stated that on May 13, 2015, at Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown, with the intent to defraud, Pitham uttered to Leon Greaves a forged Guyana birth certificate in the name Charransain, knowing same to be forged.
Pitham, of Number Eight village, West Coast Berbice, pleaded not guilty to the charge, which was read by Magistrate Dylon Bess.
According to the police’s case against him, Pitham went to the United States Embassy’s Consular Section for his scheduled immigration visa interview. It was during this time that he was asked by Greaves, a fraud investigator with the embassy, for his birth certificate.
Police say Greaves, during his examination of the document, observed that the signature, seal, paper and general appearance of the document appeared to be forged. He subsequently contacted the General Registrar Greta McDonald, who confirmed his suspicions by stating that the birth certificate was not issued by her department. It was then that the matter was reported to the police and Pitham was arrested.
Pitham was set $100,000 bail and the matter was adjourned to March 8.
