Woman Receives Suspended Six-Week Sentence After Admitting False Declaration On Immigration Form

By Alric Lindsay

Yasmell Francheska Perez- Medina appeared in the Summary Court today, July 22, 2026, to face a charge of making a false representation on a work permit application. The court heard that she repeatedly declared on work permit applications that she had never been required to pay an administrative fine, having in fact been fined for making a false representation five years earlier. She was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.

The offence came to light on May 14, 2025, when a compliance officer at Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman received an internal referral from an administrator who was processing a work permit extension application she had submitted.

The court heard that question 10.3 on that form asks, in the words read to the court, “have you ever been required to pay an administrative fine for an offence… ?” She answered no, and signed the form on pages three, six and seven. The form carries a declaration reading “I declare that the information provided above is true and correct.”

In fact, the court was told, she had been fined $500 in May 2021 for making a false representation.

A subsequent investigation found that since that fine, she had submitted a total of seven further work permit applications, each giving the same negative answer to the same question. Those applications spanned December 2022 to February 2025.

The compliance officer contacted her and asked her to attend WORC headquarters for an interview. She attended and was cautioned before being asked about the applications.

During that interview, she admitted having made a false representation in the past, accepting the 2021 matter. On the application now before the court, she said she had not known, and had not believed, that she was required to declare the earlier fine.

Following those findings, she was given the option of paying an administrative fine of $10,000. That option was not taken, and the matter proceeded to court.

Crown Counsel from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions told the court that under the Immigration (Transition) Act, a person could face a fine of $5,000 and one year’s imprisonment for a first offence, and a fine of $10,000 and two years for a second.

DPP Crown Counsel also told the court that six of the earlier work permit applications could not be prosecuted, because they “were not brought to the Crown’s attention within the statutory timeframe.”

Defence counsel Dennis Brady told the court his client’s understanding was that “once she paid that, that was the end of that and it was behind her,” submitting that the case reflected “confusion, rather than criminal conduct, and acknowledging that the guilty plea “came at the last minute.”

On the administrative fine that had been offered, the Chief Magistrate observed that she could not impose what the immigration authorities could: “I can’t impose what they can. They have a different regime to administrative [fines], but the benefit is that she doesn’t have a criminal record.”

Passing sentence, the Chief Magistrate said she had “used the low starting point,” and had given a discount for the plea “even though it came at the last minute,” together with a discount for previous good character and personal circumstances. The court heard the defendant is 33, is impecunious and so cannot pay a fine, and was unsuitable for community service because of her immigration status.

“I’m going to sentence you to six weeks in prison,” the Chief Magistrate said. However, this was suspended for two years.

The Chief Magistrate informed Perez- Medina of her right of appeal.