Three men, aged 24, 42, and 37, are now in police custody after police found them with blank COVID-19 vaccination books at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara, yesterday.
Enquiries disclosed a female nurse, who is attached to the Vreed-en-Hoop Health Centre, was on duty at the Vreed-en-Hoop Health Centre when two of the suspects went to her one after the other with two blue blank Covid-19 books each and requested that they be stamped.
They went on to tell her that the third suspect is waiting to take them to the Diamond Hospital.
She checked the said books and observed that they were all blank. Knowing that the suspects were not supposed to have them, she immediately brought the issue to the attention of her supervisor, who subsequently reported the matter to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station.
As a result, the suspects were contacted and arrested at the West Demerara Regional Hospital and escorted to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station.
During questioning, police searched the motorcar of the third suspect and found one black and gold stethoscope, seventeen blank sick leave forms which were all stamped with the West Demerara Regional Hospital stamp, and one blue covid 19 book which was not stamped bearing the name and address of a person.
Police then went to the home of the third suspect (in his presence) and conducted further searches which unearthed one machine for testing blood pressure and a machine for sugar testing in his bedroom.
He was questioned about the items and he stated that he bought them in Georgetown, but he could not produce any receipt for them. These items were immediately seized.
Searches were done at the other two suspects’ homes but nothing of evidential value was found.
The three suspects were all escorted to the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station and placed into custody pending further investigation.
