Woman being tried for passport fraud

The passport that a woman claimed she used to travel from Florida to The Bahamas did not have any signs of travel, a court heard.

Former Chief Passport Officer Siobhan Deane made the revelation while testifying in the fraud trial of Nathanya Bastian.

Bastian is accused of obtaining a Bahamian passport by false pretenses in July 2019.

The court heard that Bastian applied for renewals in respect to two Bahamian passports within months of each other.

On her 2019 application, Bastian said the reason for the renewal was that passport number ER0049804 was lost.

As a result of the application, Bastian was issued another passport. But she claimed that she couldn’t find the replacement passport and came across the old one while packing for a trip to Nassau in February 2020.

Bastian told Inspector Yvette Deveaux that since she couldn’t find her new passport, she “took a chance” traveling back to The Bahamas on passport ER0049804.

Bastian tried to use the passport at the American Embassy, but she was turned away because it was about to expire.

As a result, Bastian went to the Passport Office on February 19 seeking a renewal.

She denied that she had been issued another passport in 2019, prompting them to alert police.

Deveaux said that Bastian admitted to  “foolishly” denying the existence of the second passport.

She said that Bastian also acknowledged failing to inform the police or the Passport Office that she had found her old passport.

The prosecutor Inspector Timothy Bain asked the court to enter the witness statement of a Passport Office employee who has since died into evidence.

Defense lawyer Ryszard Humes asked for the matter to be adjourned for submissions on the admissibility of the witness statement.

The case continues on October 28.

The post Woman being tried for passport fraud appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/woman-being-tried-for-passport-fraud/