It’s a likely story: British woman visits the third world, gets her stuff stolen and has to return home empty handed, conveniently with a police report to present to her insurance company for travel insurance. And that story might have worked for Anna McPhee if Belize police had been lax….but it didn’t and now she goes home with a story of a long weekend in police detention.
It all started on Friday when the 30 year old told police her diving bag stolen from on board a Novelo’s bus. But police didn’t take it at face value, they went to McPhee’s apartment at Three Sister’s Guesthouse on Queen’s Street. And that’s where they found the supposedly stolen diving bag – but more than that, inside they found a small transparent plastic bag containing marijuana.
It weighed 6.8 grams and it was enough to land McPhee in police custody from Friday until this morning when she was arraigned in court for possession of a controlled drug and committing mischievous act. The mischievous act was lying about the theft of her diving bag. McPhee says she was trying to commit insurance fraud.
This morning she pleaded guilty to both charges. For the drug possession she was fined $400 and for the mischievous act it was a $50 fine. She made both payments by noon.
