A businessman who allegedly used a fake name and fraudulent documents to obtain an $8 million car loan from a bank was denied bail when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.

The accused, Alexander Swanson, 45, of Franklyn Town, Kingston 16, had also obtained a credit card with a limit of $500,000, after he reportedly submitted his documents, including a fraudulent job letter, which stated that he was raking in an annual salary of $9.5 million.

On Friday, when the matter was mentioned, the prosecutor, Hansurd Lawson, told the court that the accused had also convinced the passport office to issue him with a passport in the said name which is fraudulent.

The prosecutor also informed Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey that the accused had given his occupation as a doctor in that passport and that he had also lodged a fraudulent cheque for $1.2 million in his bank account where he had got the loan.

“Can I seriously contemplate bail?” the magistrate asked Swanson’s lawyer Ester Reid after hearing the damning allegations.

The lawyer, however, told the court that her client, who was born Vincent Baker, had successfully done a deed poll to change his name to Alexander Kerrick Swanson.

But the magistrate told the lawyer that the procedure was flawed as an individual cannot change his or her last name without a paternity test.

“He should not be punished for the errors of the RGD (Registrar General’s Department),” Reid argued, while noting that the company had granted her client the name change.

The magistrate, however, declined Swanson bail and remanded him in custody until September 3.

Allegations are that between October 9 and November 25, 2014, Swanson applied for an $8.1 million motor-vehicle loan from the bank. In support of his application, he reportedly submitted an employment letter and payslip stating that he earned an annual salary of $9.5 million. The accused had also acquired a credit card with a limit of $500,000 and reportedly deposited a cheque in the sum of $1.25 million.

It was subsequently discovered that the accused had another account at the institution in the name Alexander Miller and following further investigations it was found out that all the documents that he had submitted were forged and a report was made to the police.

Swanson’s house was searched by the police and a Jamaican passport in the name of Alexander Kerrick Swanson was seized.

He was later arrested and charged with two counts of forgery, obtaining money by means of forged documents, making a false declaration, uttering forged documents and conspiracy to defraud.

— Tanesha Mundle