PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — A Jamaican woman, identified only as “Ayanna”, was fined TT$40,000 (One TT dollar =US$0.16 cents) after she pleaded guilty to being in possession of a fake Trinidad and Tobago passport.

Magistrate Debby-Ann Bassaw, sitting in the Arima Magistrate Court east of here on Tuesday imposed the fine after the court was told that the Jamaican — who was already under a deportation order — was arrested as she tried to use the passport to travel to the United Kingdom.

The court was told that the 41-year-old woman appeared nervous as she awaited a flight to Gatwick Airport in London, over the weekend, and was apprehended and searched by members of the Organised Crime, Narcotics and Firearms Interdiction Bureau.

Her attorney, Jennifer Osborne, told the court that her client had been married to a Trinidad and Tobago national, but had a divorce, and was the mother of two children of Trinidad and Tobago nationality.

The court was told that the accused had sought unsuccessfully to remain here and had been approached by some unidentified persons allegedly linked to the Immigration Division, who had offered to sell her a bogus passport.

Pleading for leniency, Osborne said a previous deportation order made against Ayanna meant she has now lost everything in the new life she had built for herself in the twin island, including a business and her children.

But the magistrate dismissed the plea and ordered that the Jamaican pay TT$40,000 within a one-week period. She imposed no custodial sentence.