Guyana Magistrate Dale Kingston on Monday dismissed a case against Canadian Immigration Consultant Balwant Persaud following no case submissions by his attorney Glenn Hanoman. Persaud was on trial on allegations that he falsely collected money from a woman with the intention of obtaining a Canadian student visa for her.

He was placed on $1M bail pending the outcome of the trial, which commenced

early last year. Persaud’s lawyer successfully argued that there was no case for his client to answer since all the evidence presented pointed to another party.

According to the attorney, the Virtual Complainant, Nadira Mohan, by her own

admission, indicated that she had relieved Persaud of all commitments and had

transferred her transaction to one Alim Samad.

He also argued that since Mohan had filed a civil action against Samad, the case against his client was null and void. He pointed to the fact that in the civil matter against Samad, the Virtual Complainant is seeking to recover the same money that was mentioned in the criminal matter against his client.

Hanoman argued that the prosecution failed to prove that Persaud falsely

pretended that he was in a position to obtain a genuine Canadian visa.

According to Hanoman, his client did advertise as a bona fide Canadian

Immigration Consultant, and all transactions with the Virtual Complainant were governed by comprehensive written agreements that were all tendered as exhibits during the trial.

“The Prosecution tendered absolutely no evidence to suggest that the accused

pretended to be anything other than what he held himself out to be,” Hanoman

stated.

“In this sense, this matter is radically different from the run-of-the-mill

backtrack con that is so pervasive in Guyana. The accused in this case is

qualified professionally in this field and is authorized to assist persons to

immigrate to Canada,” the attorney added.

He said that in this case the contractual agreements could only give rise to

civil proceedings as opposed to a criminal charge.

Hanoman said that to compound matters for the prosecution, the Virtual

Complainant admitted in open court that she had terminated all her arrangements with his client and viewed Alim Samad as her new representative to obtain the visa.

Magistrate Kingston after listening to the submissions upheld them and dismissed the charge against the accused.