MONTEGO BAY, St James – A St Elizabeth woman was on Tuesday remanded in police custody for failing to prove her identity after pleading guilty to a charge of uttering a forged British passport.

The woman, whom the court heard is 36-year-old Keitha Smith of Eldersie, St Elizabeth failed to prove her real identity – despite the presence of her daughter and two brothers in the court – as she did not have any photo identification.

The court heard that the woman, who moved to London in 1999, had lost her Jamaican passport.

While in England, she obtained a forged birth certificate, with the help of others, and applied for the passport in the name of Keitha Steel-Smith in 2006. The ruse was blown when she tried to return to London on October 24 on the forged passport following a visit to Jamaica to attend to business with her children.

Resident Magistrate Sandria Wong Small told attorney-at-law Adrian Dayes that unless they can provide better proof of her identity, Smith would be remanded in custody.

The judge also instructed the police to do further checks to ascertain the woman’s identity before she returns to court on November 4.