She was found guilty of 11 counts of forgery of passport applications yesterday in the Supreme Court and she spent the night in prison. It turns out that one night is the only time she will spend in jail.
This morning 48-year-old Therese Cabral was brought down from the Hattieville Prison to hear her sentence. After hearing testimonies from character witnesses and the mitigation plea by her attorney Edwin Flowers, Justice Adolph Lucas passed sentence. He noted that while the offence is a serious one as it relates to selling out the Belizean birthright, in the law books it's only a misdemeanor. He noted that a person could be fined $1,000 for each count or in default 2 years in prison. He then passed sentence imposing a fine of $11,000 for the 11 counts of forgery. He noted that in default she would spend 2 years for each offence adding up to a total of 22 years in prison.
Before ending Lucas noted that the matter could have been tried at the Magistrate's level because the offences are not indictable. He also said he hoped the laws would be revised to make convictions for offences of this nature more severe.
And while Lucas is done with the case, the DPP's office is not. A statement from the DPP issued this afternoon says that he will appeal Justice Lucas's decision to strike out 4 forgery charges and 6 perjury charges. If that appeal is successful, the DPP expects to re-try her on those charges.
