MONTEGO BAY, St James – A former Customs Officer of the Year who was recently found guilty of breaches of the Corruptions Preventions Act was on Monday handed a suspended sentence in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrates Court.

Desrond Brown who is called ‘Pastor’ and who studied to be a Wesleyan Holiness minister was sentenced to nine months at hard labour, suspended for 12 months, by Senior Resident Magistrate Vivienne Harris.

In handing down her sentence, the RM said he had assisted a very dishonest woman in furtherance of a dishonest act, making reference to a 2005 incident in which Brown had assisted Lileith Murphy, a deportee to avoid customs and immigration at the Sangster International airport.

Brown’s attorney Natalie Messado asked the court not to send him to jail as she said he was “not a devious person and was only trying to assist some one at the time.”

Messado described Brown as some one who had always tried to help others and had volunteered at the Life Long Learning centres.

She also asked that his conviction not be officially recorded and the judge ordered that his finger print order be reversed.

In handing down her verdict earlier this year, RM Harris found that on September 9th 2005, Brown met Murphy at the airport and gave her a baggage claim ticket, which gave her access to the departure lounge, by passing customs and immigration checkpoints.

The judge said Murphy received an unlawful benefit because of the actions of Brown and thus avoided detection, which is a breach of the Immigrations Act.

Brown, who was named Customs Officer of the year for 2008, was arrested following a ruling from the office of the DPP in 2009.

He was originally facing two charges including receiving money from Murphy but that charge was later dropped.

It was heard that Murphy was trying to avoid security checks to get on a flight to New York.

The woman who the court heard had travelled on a fraudulent British passport in the name of Kim Chapman, made contact with Brown about three weeks before she was to travel. She reportedly told him she had overstayed in the island and did not want to get into any trouble.

The court heard he told her he had a contact in immigration who could help.

The Court was told that On September 9, 2005, an immigration officer who was off duty, accompanied her to the airport dressed in his uniform but when it was time for her to check in, he disappeared.

She contacted Brown who took her passport and told her it would cost US$600 to assist her. He advised her to report that she was looking for lost luggage so she could access a sterile area of the airport.

She was then escorted to the gate by an employee of the airline but was unable to give satisfactory answers to the agent at the gate after suspicions were raised.

The immigration department was alerted and she was taken to their office.

Videotapes of all persons passing through the security checks points were checked but she was not seen on any of them. The Court heard that she was only seen when she went to collect the pass to look for lost luggage.

She was also seen in the presence of the accused man in the sterile area.

Brown was subsequently transferred from the airport and placed in an ‘office job’ while the immigration officer was interdicted by his department.