The state has charged Nash Mitchel, Lyndon Marie, Kimana James, Harolda Henry and former attorney general Bernard Wiltshire with conspiracy in an alleged passport scam matter.
According to reports, the incident occurred between 2005 and 2006.
They all appeared in court on Monday.
Nine charges were slapped against Marie including that of possession of birth certificates and uttering forged Dominica birth certificate between November 11, 2005 – March 31, 2011 and August 25,2005- March 31, 2011.
Mitchel who was jointly charged with Wiltchire for the charge of conspiracy to obtain a Dominica passport under the name of Eunice Abraham between June 21, 2005 and September 26, 2006, was also slapped with charges for forging Dominica passport forms, possession of Dominica passport applications, submitting false passport forms, uttering false birth certificates and maliciously obtaining receipts from treasury with intention to deceive treasury.
Meanwhile James had five charges slapped against her including possession of forged birth certificates and uttering of false birth certificates.
The defendants were not required to plea since the matter is an indictable one.
Earlier this year Magistrate Arley Gill had the matter struck out the matter for want of prosecution.
However, the charges were reinstated by the state.
The matter was adjourned to February 5, 2015.
Yes!!!! For sure, where it is convenient for the Public Prosecution Service or for those who are able to manipulate them from behind the scenes, things seem to happen with no difficulty!! It seems so simple to restart this case within a short period (from one assizes to the other) whereas other cases sit with dust building on them when they are just as or even more important for our legal system and its legitimacy!! The Gon Emmanuel cases are cases in point!!! By ‘The Gon Emmanuel cases’ I mean the initial case where 42 charges were to be read to Mr. Stephen Isidore, a lawyer close to the PM and his government, which was brought forward by Mr. Gon Emmanuel after he had found that there were irregularities in his financial statements for which he felt Mr. Isidore was responsible. In his view it was necessary to take this matter to court in order to obtain answers to his questions. THIS CASE HAS GROUND TO A HALT…….. The second ‘Gon Emmanuel case’ is that which seeks to establish guilt or innocence of two persons, one who has ‘admitted guilt’ in the person of Deny Shillingford, and another who has been implicated in the crime, its planning and execution as he has been mentioned by Deny in his ‘confession’, namely ‘SEEKO SEKO’. So why is it that all doors are left open in this case with the passports whereas the other cases seem to be caught in stalemate situations where there appears to be no room for manoeuvre??? WHERE IS OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM, OUR GUARDIANS OF THE JUDICIARY WHILE JUSTICE SEEMS TO CONSTANTLY ELUDE US???
The police themselves must arrest the policemen who were also involved in the massive passport scam. The police need to arrest the lawyers involved in the scam.
The birth certificate scammers had to be working with the passport merchants.
Yes dominica…but again if the pm say is ok, it’s ok
Bernard Wilshire may have been hoodwinked into signing the documents but many too may have been guilty of not doing due diligence in that respect..We wonder what is the real motive with him in particular. I am sure he has not been the only one who may have signed such documents without making sure he could actually put down that signature.
Didn’t know that holding passport forms was a crime? Maybe its from an old statute but in any event it seems very comical. The forms are also available online.http://www.dominica.gov.dm/phocadownload/commonwealth_of_dominica_passport_form.pdf
Certainly the other folks charged if guilty should face the full blunt of the law for helping to make Dominican citizens illegally out of people not born in the country. Our alleged scam artists are helping to keep the country under scrutiny. For example Dominica is still on the list of only a handful of caribbean countries requiring visas to canada. This situation only compounds this.
how do you expert the police to charge the ones who actually commit the act of treason and leave out the person who recommended the passports. he has to defend himself. cause the recomender is saying that he knows the person applying for more than two years. it happen to be Wiltshire but it could have been someone else he must say why he recommended those particular passports ok. without the recommender passport cannot make.
Never said do not charge the recommender if he did actually did not do due diligence as he should. I think there are more persons who do that commonly and also unwittingly for that particular ring. Maybe they should be brought forward as well. Either way hopefully this will deter others.
Harolda Henry, Mrs. J Charles, Miss. E Registe, Mr. W Fevrier, and Mr. A Thomas and also Miss. M Isaac will come to your assistance but as for me I will not come to the assistance of any corrupt person so I pray to god to help you an the others if you are not guilty.
who ever you are you are making a coment on this matter and you are using my post name block 44 to hide your head .dominica news on line please look in to that posters email address and please take some form of action against this person.
WOW!!!!!
Ok, Ok, Ok I am a novice so in my itsy bitsy brain I am asking what about the G.O.N Emmanuel case? Just remember where there’s no peace..
There are lots of unsettled matters happening in this little island of our because of the interferences OF THIS GOVERNMENT. ONE DAY, ONE DAY CONQUER DAY.
Wow