Tashieka Mair, Star Writer

western bureau

An ex-convict who tried to leave Jamaica using a fraudulent passport was fined $150,000 or six months in prison when he appeared before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday.

Lloyd Grant, a 50-year-old higgler of Gordon Pen, St. Catherine, was charged with uttering a forged document. He was arrested on October 26 as he tried to board a flight to Curacao using a fraudulent British passport.

Grant was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for possession, dealing in and attempting to export cocaine in 2003.

Defence attorney Morrel Beckford told the court that his client's actions were not driven by sinister intent but what he describes as 'shallow thinking.'

He said that Grant's decision to use the fraudulent document was because of his previous conviction, and the length of time it would have taken for him to get a new passport to travel.

Grant, a father of one, checked in at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay on October 26 to board an Air Jamaica flight to Curacao.

He presented the British passport in the name Paul Anthony Reid to an immigration officer, who became suspicious that the document was not legitimate. As a result, the document was handed over to the investigative unit.

It was later confirmed that the photo in the document was substituted. Grant admitted to paying $10,000 for the forged document.