KIMAULY Hoyles, the 38-year-old airport employee who tried to leave the island on a fraudulent United States (US) passport, was on Wednesday fined $500,000 or three months in prison.

Hoyles appeared before the St James Parish Court where he was facing a charge of uttering a forged document. He was represented by attorney-at-law Ernest Davis.

During the mitigation phase, Davis emphasised that his client chose not to prolong proceedings by entering a guilty plea, and requested leniency from presiding judge Natiesha Fairclough-Hylton.

According to court documents, on September 12, Hoyles was in the process of boarding a flight to Toronto, Canada, from Sangster International Airport when authorities, acting on information they had received, intercepted him at the boarding gate.

He was escorted to the immigration investigation unit for examination of his US passport, which was found to bear an immigration landing stamp. A subsequent examination of the system showed no record of any travel activity associated with that passport.

Further enquiries with the US Embassy confirmed that the passport was fraudulent.

Hoyles was previously found guilty of multiple drug-related offences, such as possession, dealing, attempting to export, trafficking, and conspiracy to export cocaine, as well as possession of criminal property.

These charges stem from the seizure of approximately 277.15 kilogrammes of cocaine with an estimated street value of over $2 billion at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston on December 10, 2020.