Venezuelans fined for illegal entry, 1 deported

Two Venezuelan women and a man of Penny Lane, South Ruimveldt Park, Georgetown, were each ordered to pay a fine of ,000 by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan after they admitted to entering Guyana by unlawful means.
Marlon Atwell, Inez Bolivar and Jennifer Bolivar were separately slapped with a charge which stated that on May 22, 2017, at Eteringbang, Cuyuni River, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), they entered Guyana by sea and disembarked without presenting themselves to immigration authorities.
Police Prosecutor Arvin Moore told the court that Police conducted a raid at the Penny Lane residence where the defendants were found and asked to produce their passports. After they failed to do so, an investigation was launched and it was revealed that the defendants never presented themselves to immigration authorities upon entering the jurisdiction, causing them to be arrested and charged with the offence.
Representing the trio was Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd, who told the court that Inez Bolivar was 19 years of age and engaged to one Miguel Atwell, a Guyanese citizen and brother of the first named accused, while Jennifer Bolivar is five months along with her third child for Martin Atwell, the father of Marlon and Miguel Atwell.
Todd pleaded with the Magistrate to impose non-custodial sentences and minimum fines for his clients in light of existing special circumstances. He disclosed that Guyana- born Martin Atwell decided to return to Guyana with his children when the killings and uprisings of the Venezuelan crisis had risen to an extent that made it difficult for the family to survive there. In addition, the court heard that the younger Bolivar and Miguel were high-school sweethearts and had not the opportunity to legalise their intentions prior to their contact with Police in Guyana. He, thereby, requested the Magistrate not to order a deportation but rather to allow his client to return on her own and re-enter the country legally so that she may “reunite with the only love she had ever known”.
Meanwhile, as regards Jennifer Bolivar, the lawyer related that the defendant has two children aged two and four from a common-law union with the senior Atwell, one of whom is reportedly enrolled in a local school, as he highlighted the dangers of travelling via sea in such a condition (in the event of a deportation) and the difficulties and adverse effects of uprooting and transplanting the children.
The trio pleaded guilty to the offence and were ordered by the Magistrate to pay a fine of ,000 with an alternative of four weeks’ imprisonment. Inez Bolivar will be escorted to the nearest port of exit after payment of the fine or serving the alternative sentence.