British writer and pregnant girlfriend busted with marijuana

A British freelance writer and his eight-month pregnant girlfriend begged for leniency after they were busted with a small amount of marijuana inside their room at a local guest house. Twenty-eight year old Stuart Hall and twenty-one year old Sheyla Velez, a Guatemalan Secretary, were escorted to court where they both pleaded guilty to Possession of eighteen point three grams of weed. Senior Magistrate Dorothy Flowers fined them each eight hundred dollars in default, six months imprisonment. But that was not the end of their troubles. Shortly afterwards the couple was taken to another courtroom where they were slapped with immigration offences. Both were charged for Failure to Comply with a Visitor’s Permit and Failure to Produce a Visitor’s Permit. For this new offence they also pleaded guilty and were each additionally fined a thousand dollars, in default, another year in jail. Senior Immigration Officer, Horace Guzman, said that this morning, a joint police and immigration team went to the Sea Breeze Guest House on Gabourel Lane where they asked the couple to produce their documents. Authorities could not locate their papers, but instead found marijuana in their car. Hall told police that that he had his passport with his luggage in Placencia, but when P.G. Immigration officers made checks, no passports were found among the luggage for the couple. In court Hall cried and begged Magistrate Aretha Ford not to send him or his pregnant wife to prison. The Immigration Department has not requested the deportation of Hall and Velez and is giving them the opportunity to contact their embassy due to Velez’s condition. During that period, the couple will file for new passports and possibly get an extension into the country.