_{Photo: Doris Grant, charged}

by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Mon. May 20, 2024

A woman who swindled close to a quarter million dollars by pretending to be a Lands officer has been charged for a series of offenses.

The woman has been identified as Doris Grant.

According to reports, Grant collected large sums of money by impersonating an officer who could conduct a land transaction. Reports are indicating that over a year ago, one of Grant’s victims – an American national – came forward to authorities to make a report which outlined multiple disbursements he had made to Grant with the hopes of getting a piece of land and a home.

ACP Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander of the Belize Police Department’s Eastern Division, noted to local reporters that after the report was made an investigation was conducted, and Grant was arrested and charged with 14 counts of theft and 14 counts of obtaining property by deception.

He also confirmed that Grant’s victim made fourteen different transactions – thus the 14 counts – and paid for a piece of land belonging to Grant. It is yet uncertain how much money was transferred between both parties, but unconfirmed reports are that Grant was able to net an estimated $250,000 through the scam.

Grant’s attorney, Richard “Dickie” Bradley, told Amandala that his client plans to sue the Police Department, as she was detained from 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday of last week.

“This is the Constitution of the police; and in any case, meaning what will happen, take the citizen to court not more than 48 hours after they have been detained or arrested, and this is shameless and worthlessness to have kept this person in lockup, having the paper that she’s a high diabetic patient. The fact that a complaint had been made from last year. There’s no reason why they couldn’t have had, in the age of a computer, make up the charge sheet, charge her and she go to court. It’s a bailable offense. So, here she is, still in police custody, unable to get her freedom,” he said.

Additional reports mentioned that Grant had fainted while in police custody due to her condition. Bradley noted that Grant was lied to by the Department, as she was promised that she would be taken to Orange Walk for her court hearing, but it never happened.

He went on to say that Grant never received any of the money sent to her.

“I only know from the complaints that they say money was sent to her. Money was not sent to Miss Grant … This lady that I see it’s … you know … I mean … I don’t want to disparage nobody, but, hey man … you can’t be so naive to be sending money, and [not] know who you are sending money to. So, I don’t want to get into the details. I want to make a complaint, because the police can do better than this,” Bradley highlighted.