By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A WOMAN seeking permanent residency in the United States found herself in court after she returned to The Bahamas on an expired passport which she had previously reported as lost, the court was told.
Prosecutors alleged that Natanya Bastian attempted to commit fraud by false pretences when she tried to obtain a Bahamian passport from the Passport Office in February 2020.
She pleaded not guilty when she first appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney and the case was adjourned for trial.
When Inspector Yvette Deveaux gave evidence yesterday, she said that on the day in question she was contacted by the acting chief passport officer who informed her of the alleged offence, before handing over two passport applications in the defendant’s name. Inspector Deveaux said the first application was dated in 2019 and was submitted for a lost passport. The court was told that Bastian filed the second application in 2020 when she requested a passport renewal because her current passport had expired.
The court was told that Bastian was arrested on October 15, 2020. Inspector Deveaux said when she was interviewed, she said she did apply to the Passport Office in 2019 for a renewal because she had misplaced her ER passport. She said Bastian claimed she was given an AA passport to replace it; however, she also misplaced the AA passport in the United States where she currently resided and could not locate it.
According to the officer, the accused said she came back to The Bahamas to apply for a US visa which she needed in order to be eligible for permanent residency in the US. She said the night before she came, she realised she could not find her AA passport, however she said she was able to locate her first passport that she had previously reported as lost. She said she used her old passport to travel to The Bahamas, but when she went to the US Embassy, she was informed that it was about to expire and they would not be able to accept her application with it.
Inspector Deveaux said Bastian then went to the Passport Office where she filled out an application for a passport renewal, after stating that the one she was currently in possession of was expired. She said the accused told her it was not her intent to deceive anyone.
Yesterday, the prosecution was not in possession of either of the applications to which Inspector Deveaux referred in her testimony. As a result, Magistrate McKinney adjourned the case to today to give the Crown an opportunity to formally enter the documents into evidence.
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