One Man Tried to Scam 2,000 Acres of Crown Land

According to Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde, whose portfolio includes the Ministry of Natural Resources, government was able to reverse a partially completed transaction that would have seen one individual fraudulently owning two thousand acres of crown land.

 

Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister

“You had a gentleman who was trying to pull a fast one on the Government of Belize for two thousand acres of land, you know, and we were able to get to the bottom of it and figured out that, you know what, you don‘t have a claim to this land.  This land is still national land, this land is for the people of Belize and so we were able to take that back and subdivide that and now we are in the process of giving hundreds of Belizeans their residential plots and giving hundreds of Belizeans farm plots out of those two thousand acres.  But then you wonder how they are able to pull such a fast one on a lot of unsuspecting people and I think that it’s just a cautionary tale for everyone out here that you really have to guard your money jealously like you have to treat your money like you treat your wife or your husband.  Like you cant afford to get that out of your eyesight easily.  Like you cannot be, you have to be careful and aware of agents and fake agents.  You cannot be engaging and giving your money to people who are so-called public officers or people pretending to be public officers for lands all over the country.  Listen, don’t try to bribe anybody and don’t let anybody bribe you.  You’ve already paid for this service.  Every time you pay taxes, every time we go to the store, we pay taxes and those taxes pay our salaries and so it is our jobs as public officers to provide that service to the public.  Yes, the process takes a little long, the process is frustrating many times, but you gotta work the process and try to stay honest in the process because when you get out of that a whole lot of things go wrong and you end up paying a ton load of money and you never get the property that you think you had, that you think you have a legitimate claim to and you don‘t.  So it‘s for people to really beware.  People have to really guard their money jealously and not be falling for these wicked fellas.”