MONTEGO BAY, St James — An attempt by a Dominican man to get to Europe through Sangster International Airport using fake travel documents failed last month, after alert Jamaican immigration officials spotted the fraud.

Jose Manuel Dias Montilla found himself before the St James Parish Court last Wednesday where he was fined and ordered deported after he pleaded guilty to using a fraudulent travel document.

According to court documents, on January 24, around 4:00 pm, Dias Montilla tried to leave Jamaica for Germany carrying a valid Dominican Republic passport with a fake Spanish resident permit inside.

Suspicious immigration officials, with the help of a Spanish-speaking officer, detained him and informed him of the possible offence.

Two days later, through a Spanish interpreter, Dias Montilla claimed, under caution, that he had paid 250 Dominican pesos to a travel company in his home country for the fake permit and was expected to pay an additional 200,000 pesos upon arrival in Spain.

He said the permit was created using a copy of his Dominican passport and that the process took 11 days. He also confirmed he had entered Jamaica on January 22 and argued that, “It’s the man who gave us this document that we should look for and imprison.”

Following his guilty plea Judge Natiesha Fairclough-Hylton handed down a $20,000 fine, or 30 days in jail, and issued a deportation order.