Bar Manager Fined for Illegal ‘Waitresses’

Ray Herrera

The Business Manager for MJ’s Bar, a well known and local spot in the city, located on West Collet Canal, was today before the court to answer to two counts of Employing a Person Not in Possession of an Employment Permit. Ray Herrera appeared before Magistrate Herbert Panton and pleaded guilty to the two charges. According to the Immigration Department, Herrera employed two Honduran nationals, Keira Sirey Pineda Martinez and Irma Isabel Arita Portillo without a valid work permit.  This is Herrera’s first time before the court on such offenses, so he was spared from the mandatory fine of five thousand dollars or a two year jail term. Instead he was imposed a non-custodial sentence and fined two thousand dollars for each of the women he employed. According to Immigration officers, when they visited the bar on Thursday, the women could not produce employment permits to work in Belize but are living here legally.