Tonight Corozal Police are on the lookout for former Ministry of Housing employee Vernon Cuthkelvin after he left a popular resort in the Corozal District without paying his hefty bill of several thousand dollars. According to Supt. Miguel Guzman the officer in Charge of Corozal Police on May twentieth Vernon Cutkelvin checked in at Tony’s Resort and ran up a bill of over three thousand dollars and then simply slipped out never to be seen again. Well tonight an all points bulletin is out for this scam artist’s arrest. Supt. Guzman gave 7News a run down of how it all happened.
Supt. Miguel Guzman, OIC - Corozal Police
“A report was lodged against Mr. Cuthkelvin by one Melissa Castillo Martin, 34, she is a Belizean businesswoman of south end Corozal Town and she reported that on the 8th of May 2009, Mr. Vernon Cuthkelvin arrived at her business establishment, namely Tony’s Inn, and ordered a room and offered payment
with a local debit card which serial number is unknown at this time. Mr. Cuthkelvin left the establishment without settling the bill nor informing the administration of the establishment that he was checking out.
During the period of his stay at Tony’s Inn, he made a bill of $3,078 Belize Currency and now they are trying to means and ways to recover this money. Because of the nature of the report, we have taken the report and we are dealing with it as a criminal matter because is tantamount to a criminal deception. So we have issued a warrant of arrest for Mr. Vernon Cuthkelvin. He gave an address in Belize City in Buttonwood Bay which police have already checked out but the person with whom he was living, they say that he no longer lives there. So subsequent to that we sent out an APB on him because we have a warrant for his arrest.”
If you happen to know the whereabouts of Vernon Cutkelvin please contact the nearest police station. We should also mention the Cuthkelvin was made to resign from the Ministry of Housing two weeks ago. That’s after complaints started coming in from people who claim he had conned them into believing that if they paid him a few thousand dollars, he could secure a home at Los Lagos for them. Of course, the Ministry of Housing has nothing to do with Los Lagos.
Housing Minister Michael Finnegan today told us that he has encouraged people with such complaints to go to the police. As for Cuthkelvin himself, Finnegan described him as “a UDP soldier who has gone astray and needs psychological care.” And though he and Cuthkelvin were known to be close, Finnegan says he won’t protect anyone who’s guilty of that kind of dishonesty. Of course, Cuthkelvin carried a let the employer beware sign from in the last UDP term in the 90’s when he famously ran up a tab at a Belize City hotel.
