APNU official Rickford Burke charged for identity theft in New York

OPPOSITION personality Rickford Burke has been hauled before the US Courts to answer charges related to identity theft. He faces up to seven years’ imprisonment should he be found guilt of this offence. Burke, who is aligned to the opposition political parties, the People National Congress Rickford Burke Reform and A Partnership for National Unity, also heads the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy in the United States, a not for profit, non-partisan organization and think-tank which was founded in 2000. He appeared in the Kings Criminal Court on January 16 last charged with first degree identity theft which could see him facing a maximum of eight years in jail if found guilty and convicted. The incident involving the CGID Head occurred on January 15 last, which resulted in him being arrested by the New York Police Department (NYPD) around 00:25h, according to the case information. The staunch critic of the People’s Progressive Party Civic administration bought himself a Range Rover with the use of someone else's credit card, which amounts to identity theft under US laws. Burke is a known member of the Peoples National Congress Reform (PNCR) and is involved in activism work in the United States. He is a former personal assistant to then PNC leader and President of Guyana, Hugh Desmond Hoyte , who later migrated to the US following the PPP/C's ascension to office in 1992. “A person commits the most basic form of identity theft as defined in the New York Penal Code when he or she "knowingly and with intent to defraud assumes the identity of another person by presenting himself or herself as that other person, or by acting as that other person or by using personal identifying information of that other person," and additionall (a) obtains goods, money, property or services or uses credit in the name of such other person or otherwise causes financial loss, or (b) commits a class A misdemeanor or higher level crime. He is expected to make another court appearance on February 26, 2013 at the Kings Criminal Court.