patrick Reynolds, accused of forging a United States visa and uttering the forged document to immigration, was fined $60,000 for the offences in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on Thursday.

tampered with

Allegations in the matter are that the accused was bound for Miami when immigration checked the issue number of his visa. This revealed that the document was originally issued to a Stacey Atkins whose name and specifics came up during the checks. Reynolds was accused of removing both Atkins' name and picture from the visa, replacing them with his own.

The accused, however, offered a different story. While pleading guilty to the charges, he told Senior Resident Magistrate Glen Brown that he gave $30,000 to a man who said he was an 'agent' at the United States Embassy in Jamaica. The money, he said, was to cover the cost of sourcing the visa.

The accused man said he did not know it was forged and would later become a problem as he had travelled on it twice before.

Reynolds will spend six months in jail should he fail to pay the fines.