A labourer who was caught driving a Toyota Hiace minibus with forged insurance and fitness certificates was slapped with a $150,000-fine after he pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Audley Kelly, 31, of Milk Lane in Kingston 2, was held while driving his motor vehicle on the Sir Florizel Glasspole Highway in Kingston by police officers and members of the Transport Authority

The court heard that Kelly, when asked to produce the document for his vehicle, showed the forged documents.

On Tuesday, Kelly told Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey that he bought the documents from a man who approached him at the tax office where he went to look about the documents.

“Your Honour, mi just buy the bus and it crash and me fix it up and when me go tax office a man come to me and say him can get me de documents,” Kelly said.

However, Pusey lambasted him for his careless and lawless action. She said the matter of motorists acquiring and passing off fraudulent documents as authentic was a very serious criminal issue as the motorists are endangering the lives of the passengers.

“To go down there and take your money and give it to a man who is a criminal is wrong,” she said “and I believe it’s time people start going to prison for it.”

However, she told Kelly that she would not send him to prison as he had no passenger in the vehicle at the time he was held.

He was then sentenced to pay $10,000 each for two count of forgery, $20,000 each for two counts of uttering forged documents and two counts of possession of forged documents and $50, 000 on one count of conspiracy to defraud while no evidence was offered on the other count. Each charge attracted a six-month prison sentence if the fines are not paid.