By Breaking Belize News Staff: Two more apparently fake Belize City driver’s licences have surfaced, with two Belama residents convicted after telling the court they had paid intermediaries who claimed they could help them obtain licences quickly.
Edgar Lionel Ramos Ico, 43, a Guatemalan salesman of Belama Phase 5, and Julio Ernesto Lopez Gomez, 31, a Salvadoran construction worker of Belama Phase 6, appeared before the Chief Magistrate on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to uttering upon a false document.
Both men were fined $800 plus $5 cost of court and were given until March 31, 2027 to pay. In default, each faces three months’ imprisonment.
The licences were discovered in separate incidents on Monday, September 28, when both men visited the Belize City Traffic Department on Youth for the Future Drive to conduct motorcycle title transactions.
According to the court facts, a Traffic Department Administrative Officer noticed several inconsistencies in the licences and checks of the Traffic Department’s records reportedly found no licences registered in either man’s name.
Both were subsequently detained and charged.
During mitigation, however, the men told the court that they had obtained the licences through other individuals who told them they could assist with securing a driver’s licence.
Gomez said he purchased his licence about a month ago after meeting a young man who connected him with another person who sold him the document. He reportedly told the court that he later identified the intermediary to police.
Ico said he obtained his licence approximately 13 months ago after meeting a man at a Puma gas station and asking whether he knew anyone who could help him get a driver’s licence. According to Ico, he believed the licence would be obtained through a legitimate process but later discovered that it was fake.
Both men reportedly cooperated with investigators and are first-time offenders.
The Chief Magistrate reminded them that uttering upon a false document is a serious offence and questioned why they had sought alternative means of obtaining licences when, as permanent residents, they were eligible to apply through the established process.
The cases come only days after another foreign national was charged over an allegedly fake Belize driver’s licence.
BBN previously reported that 35-year-old Nicaraguan national Yadira De Los Angeles Aldana was charged after police alleged she presented a Belize driver’s licence at a Cemetery Road checkpoint that could not be verified in official records. Aldana pleaded not guilty and was granted $2,000 bail.
The Belize City Council says its city-issued licences contain several security features and are recorded in its Traffic Department database. In 2025, the Council announced that it had upgraded its licence-printing system with additional security laminate intended to make licences more difficult to counterfeit.
The emergence of several questionable licences within days of each other raises further questions about how the documents are being produced and distributed. Police have not publicly announced charges against any person accused of manufacturing or selling the fake licences.
The post Guatemalan and Salvadoran man charged for fake drivers licenses; Fined $800 each appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Breaking Belize News Staff: Two more apparently fake Belize City driver’s licences have surfaced, with two Belama residents convicted after telling the court they had paid intermediaries who claimed they could help them obtain licences quickly. Edgar Lionel Ramos Ico, 43, a Guatemalan salesman of Belama Phase 5, and Julio Ernesto Lopez Gomez, 31,
The post Guatemalan and Salvadoran man charged for fake drivers licenses; Fined $800 each appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
