BELIZE CITY, Mon. Feb. 25, 2019– Two men, Dorian Blair, 24, and Barrington Slusher, 41, who posed as police officers, changed their plea from not guilty to guilty of a charge of pretense of an officer when they appeared today for trial before Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts Anderson.

They were each sentenced to 1 year imprisonment.

The incident occurred around 4:30 p.m. on April 19, 2017. Two police officers, Constable Robert Gordon and Woman Constable Kimaure Garnett, were on mobile patrol when they received information from a security guard at Public’s Supermarket, located at Mile two and a half on the Philip Goldson Highway, of two men dressed in police uniforms who were acting suspiciously.

The officers proceeded to the supermarket and when they arrived there, they saw the suspects, both of them dressed in what appeared to be police uniforms. The officers approached the suspects and informed them that a search would be conducted on them.

The search revealed nothing incriminating. A search of a black bag, which one of the suspects was carrying, resulted in the discovery of 10 plastic straps.

The suspects, whose identities were later learned to be Blair and Slusher, were informed of the offence committed and they were arrested and charged.