Two held for presenting altered documents to immigration officials

SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

Two men were ar­rest­ed at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um this week af­ter al­leged­ly pre­sent­ing al­tered doc­u­ments to im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials.

Around 9:45 am on Tues­day, a 27-year-old man from San Fer­nan­do pro­duced his pass­port to an Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer on du­ty. Of­fi­cers ob­served that the en­try stamp on the fifth page ap­peared tam­pered with, with the year al­tered from 2022 to 2024. The date 15/09/2022 ap­peared changed to 15/09/2024.

When Cpl Mo­hammed in­formed him of the of­fence of ut­ter­ing a false doc­u­ment, the man replied: “Of­fi­cer, I re­al­ly al­ter the date but that was a long time now.”

In a sep­a­rate in­ci­dent around 3 pm on Mon­day, the same Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer ex­am­ined doc­u­ments pre­sent­ed by a 54-year-old man, in­clud­ing three pass­ports and a birth cer­tifi­cate. The date of birth list­ed as 1971 ap­peared al­tered, with the last dig­it changed to re­sem­ble an 8.

When con­front­ed, he said, “Of­fi­cer is my chil­dren who do that.”

Both men were tak­en to the Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion.

Po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.