Email

Print

Police press officer Fitzroy Yearwood told us that Police investigators are still trying to come up with theories as to how he could have perpetrated the fraud so thoroughly.

Jim McFadzean
"How could Mr. Wilson have paraded for so long in a police uniform allegedly working as a police officer at Club Next and having coming in contact with other police officers without being detected?"

Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Well, Jim I ask myself that same question, but let's re-track, Belize District have about 300 police officers, Wilson is not one of the officers that comes into, well he was not pretending to be an officer that comes to the station to perform regular duty, so I believe that he use to use this uniform and because he is just moving around Belize City, he wouldn't be identified easily, because it's not like he is coming to Queen Street to perform duties at patrol branch or going to C.I.B. to perform duties there, but he knew why he had that uniform and he executed what he wanted to do with that uniform. It is unfortunate for him and fortunate for us that he committed himself in such a fashion on Friday that made himself detectable, when I say detectable this person did not just sit back and say, oh, because it's a police officer we leave it by, and if you notice upon being detected as an impostor that is where it was considered the end of the road for him in his impersonation of a police officer."

Jim McFadzean
"I know your investigation is still ongoing but what other serious laps of security have you discovered so far?"

Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Well, we know that we recovered the identification card that he was going around with. It is not by any means saying that he was a police officer, because I had a look on it, is saying that he was attached to the Scenes of Crime section of the police department."

Jim McFadzean
"Do your records show that Wilson did work as a special constable in San Ignacio and in fact had applied to the C.I.B. department?"

Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Jim in order for you to become a detective at the criminal investigation branch, you would have had to be in a part of a recruit squad, go through the 6 months of training, after the 6 months of training if you are not posted there automatically you would have been transferred from another section of the department. But that would have been, that you would have been in the system from training, you do not just go and apply to be a detective, you had to be a trained police officer then you can go to that section and be a detective."

Jim McFadzean
"So he never...?"

Sgt. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Never entered the department, as a recruit nor as a special constable."

And while Police have established that Now that he was never a special constable - Lee Mark Chang who's been a special constable since 2003 told us that the discipline governing his group is not so lax.

He says there are very strict procedures that govern how one becomes a special constable.

Lee Mark Chang, Special Constable
"Basically through the course when we did the crash course it is almost as equivalent I guess, as equivalent to the powers of verse to a police officer just that you don't have any rank. Some of the special constables who work full time they do get a salary to work either with a city council or with the police departments, so that's basically it. As for myself, I don't get any type of salary or stipend."

Jim McFadzean
"And how often are you called upon?"

Lee Mark Chang, Special Constable
"Whenever it's needed, sometimes once a week, sometimes once a month, sometime numerous times a week, so it all depends on the times that they need translator for the case."

Jim McFadzean
"Once you are given this certificate giving you powers of arrest, what comes along with that, identifications? Do you get uniforms? Do you get to carry a gun?"

Lee Mark Chang, Special Constable
"After you accomplish the course, then you are sworn in to uphold the laws of Belize and yes you are issued an ID as a police constable. The special constable that does work full time yes they are issued a uniform."

Jim McFadzean
"When you were last personally involved in an operation as a special constable?"

Lee Mark Chang, Special Constable
"I think it was March that there was a robbery in progress and I got the call and I went and assisted, there we found there one gentleman with a toy pistol that the Chinese person said that allegedly said that he rob him of fry chicken, so I assisted in that arrest and handed him over to the C.I.B. department."

Wilson was charged with 6 offences when he appeared in the #1 Magistrate's court yesterday. Those include forgery and possession of an official document, namely a police identification card, along with theft of a cell phone, aggravated assault of an indecent nature, threatening words and being in unlawful possession of Belize police department accoutrements - meaning the outfit.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges that were not indictable. He was denied bail and remanded into custody for a week. His pretense came crashing down on Friday when Shannon Martinez made a report alleging that Wilson was in uniform when he gave her a ride, threatened to shoot her boyfriend and then caressed her thigh. Police detained Wilson while he was still wearing the police uniform. We are told that the Internal Affairs Department was even preparing charges for him when the head of Eastern Division ACP David Henderson asked to see the constable's ID. When he did, he realized it was fake and the thereafter the charade came tumbling down.