Clifton Deochand, a Guyanese based in France, was yesterday fined $100,000, after he admitted to having a forged passport.
Deochand, 32, who resides in France and also at Lot 7 East La Penitence Squatting area, pleaded guilty to possession of a forged document when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
The prosecutor stated that on September 10, Deochand went to the immigration office to request a new machine-readable passport, presenting one which was numbered 1217195. When the officials reviewed the passport, it was found that the number was assigned to a Roshini Sudarson.
As a result, Deochand was subsequently arrested and charged and confessed that he knew that it was a forged document.
When given the opportunity to speak, a soft-spoken Deochand explained to the magistrate that he wanted to come back home to Guyana, so he paid a woman in France €150,000 to forge him a passport.
Deochand said he was sorry. “I only wanted to come back home,” he stated.
He was fined the sum of $100,000 with an alternative of six months imprisonment.
