Jamaican national Tyrone Quest admitted this week that his authorisation to stay in the Cayman Islands had expired in 2002. His failure to do anything about it for the next five years cost him a conviction and 12 months imprisonment.
When Magistrate Grace Donalds asked why he didn’t do something, he first said he didn’t really understand Immigration. Questioned further, he said he was scared to go to Immigration.
Since 2002, there have been two amnesty periods for overstayers: in October 2004 and in December 2005.
Crown Counsel Kirsty-Ann Gunn provided background to the offence of overstaying and failing to answer truthfully when questioned by an Immigration officer.
Quest, now 41, arrived in 1996 on a tourist visa. He was initially sponsored by his mother, who is married to a Caymanian.
He was then granted a number of temporary work permits until January 1999. He left Cayman and returned in November 2000.
He had a work permit as a painter and maintenance man and it expired in May 2002. His employer applied for a renewal, but then revoked it in July 2002. Quest was made aware of the fact that he no longer had a permit, Mrs. Gunn said.
In July this year he was seen at a gas station and questioned. Days later, in an interview, he accepted he was an overstayer. He said his employer told him he had applied for a permit renewal, but then later told him, he no longer required his services.
Quest said that after Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, he was helping people out. Since then he had worked for various people for $50 a day in cash.
At the time of the interview, Quest had $450 in his pocket. He said it was for his flight home, which he was planning for after the contact with Immigration.
Asked about his passport, he said it had been destroyed in Ivan. When officers went to his residence, the passport was recovered. Quest said he lied because he was scared.
The magistrate asked if he wanted to say anything in court. He said what caused him to get in this problem was his request for the employer to put in a permit renewal. The employer told him everything was okay.
Later, when Quest asked about getting a stamp in his passport, the employer told him he did not put in the renewal application.
That was when the magistrate asked him why he did not go to Immigration or ask someone else.
Five years is an extremely long period – long enough for Quest to have done something, she said.
She imposed the 12 months for overstaying and six months concurrent for not telling the truth. She said Quest’s time in custody would count.
The Immigration Law provides for a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a fine of $20,000.
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