Three men who were recently held in the British Virgin Islands with fake visas have been sentenced to prison for 10 months.
In court on Wednesday, the magistrate also ordered Wilbin Encarnacion Rodriquez, 21, Carlos Manuel Ventura Done, 31, and Junior Manuel Mejia Aquino, 21, to pay a fine of US$600 each.
Their fines have a default sentence of one month in prison.
In handing down the sentence, the magistrate said he took several mitigating and aggravating factors into consideration.
Among the aggravating factors was the assertion that the men – all Hispanic, were attempting to fool local law enforcement by telling them that they were crew members on a cargo boat when in fact, they only wanted to gain illegal access to the territory via that medium.
According to police reports, the men were recently found on a cargo vessel from the Dominican Republic that was docked in the BVI.
The authorities, were prompted to conduct the search of the vessel after a fourth crew member on the boat was caught in Tortola.
The trio was subsequently arrested and charged.
