By Tashieka Mair, Star Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:

A man who tried to obtain a Jamaican passport by using forged documents ended up $300,000 poorer as he was ordered to pay fines totalling that amount in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

The man, 20-year-old Lamar Edwards of Unity Hall in St. James, entered a guilty plea to two courts of uttering forged documents.

The facts are that he went to the passport office on September 10 to apply for a Jamaican passport using a national identification and a birth certificate.

However the date of birth on the two pieces of documents differed, and it was later discovered the identification card was fraudulent. He subsequently admitted to paying a friend in Kingston, $3000 to obtain the document.

He was fined $150,000 on each count or six months in prison. If the fines are not paid, the sentences will run concurrently.