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Tanzanian woman busted trying to get Belizean passport using bogus documents

InternationalTanzanian woman busted trying to get Belizean passport using bogus documents

A 55-year-old native of the country of Tanzania in East Africa is the latest person in a string of foreign nationals who have been caught in possession of faulty immigration and nationality documents by alert Immigration personnel.

Tanzanian national Teena Isaac attempted to get a legitimate Belizean passport by using a fake Belizean birth certificate and Social Security card.

She was promptly remanded to the Belize Central Prison today after she appeared before Magistrate Dale Cayetano and pleaded guilty to charges of falsifying a document, failure to comply with the conditions of a visitor’s permit, using a document she is not entitled to use, and using a certificate she is not entitled to use.
After Isaac pleaded guilty to the charges, she was fined $1,000 for each offence, amounting to a total of $4,000. She was ordered to pay the fines forthwith. In default of payment, her sentence is one year for each count with the stipulation that the sentences are to run concurrently. She was unable to pay and was consequently incarcerated.

About 11:45 a.m. yesterday, Isaac went to the Immigration Department in Belize City and submitted an application for a Belizean passport. She used a Belizean birth certificate and a Belizean Social Security card – both of them in the name of Carmen Cantun of San Narciso, Corozal District.

However, she was unable to answer some questions put to her by an Immigration officer, and after she was questioned extensively, she admitted that the birth certificate and Social Security card were false. It was also discovered in her Tanzanian passport that she came to Belize via the northern border and her visa permit has expired.

The Immigration Department has made an application for a removal order for her to be deported to Tanzania either after she has paid the fine, or served the time.

Authorities have not yet determined whether Carmen Cantun is alive or dead. It is highly suspected that Teena Isaac was able to procure the birth certificate and Social Security card via insider collusion by agents at the relevant departments.

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