KINGSTON, Jamaica — Two men have pleaded guilty in separate instances to fraud involving driver’s licence, according to the Revenue Protection Department (RPD).

In one case, Dexter Lodge, a farmer of Red Ground in St Elizabeth, was sentenced to two years imprisonment at hard labour suspended for two years.

Allegations are that on May 30, 2017, another person successfully sat the written driver’s licence examination at the Spanish Town Road Examination Depot in Lodge’s name.  This led to Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) issuing a driver’s licence in his name and with his image.

RPD said the discrepancy was discovered and Lodge was located and questioned in the presence of his attorney on August 26. 

He pleaded guilty to obtaining goods by forged documents, contrary to section 10 of the Forgery Act on October 16.

The RPD reported that in her summation, Parish Judge Ann Marie Granger noted that Lodge’s action was frowned upon by the court, but said there were mitigating circumstances that were considered in imposing the sentence, one of which was the fact that the accused had pleaded guilty in the first instance.

In the other case, Jamie Rose, a 29-year-old man of Kellits district, Clarendon pleaded guilty to uttering forged documents contrary to Section 9 of the Forgery Act, in the Clarendon Parish Court on November 18.

The allegation was that Rose attended the Chapelton Tax Office on November 3, 2020 and presented a Jamaican driver’s licence, which was later identified as fraudulent.  He was arrested and charged by RPD officers.

Rose was fined $150,000 or three months imprisonment.