Man fined $100,000 for passport fraud
A man who admitted to putting false information on his passport application form was fined $100,000 when he appeared in the St James Parish Court on Monday.
Fifty-eight-year-old Mervel Anthony Clarke pleaded guilty to making a false declaration.
According to court documents, on March 12, 2018, Clarke went to the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) to renew his passport.
It was then discovered that he was the subject of a dual identity. The system indicated that a passport under the name Dwight Spencer had been issued to Clarke in the past, prompting authorities to request an interview.
He was subsequently arrested and charged.
Attorney-at-law Martyn Thomas, who represented Clarke, told the court that his client used his legitimate passport in the 1990s to travel to the United States in pursuit of a better life.
Thomas said Clarke lived in the US for more than a decade and fathered three children with his now ex-partner.
The attorney said while in the US Clarke encountered legal issues, which led to his incarceration for a period of 18 months before he was deported.
“He wanted to reunite with his children, and someone spoke to him and told him that they could get him a passport in an assumed name…He did everything that he needed to do to acquire the passport through this agent, and an application was filled out in his name.
“But he never received it because he had indicated that he was not interested because he had changed his mind and decided to walk in the straight and narrow path. He never collected the passport, it was never used, never travelled on, and he has never seen it,” Thomas told the court.
The attorney also indicated that his client became seriously ill two years ago and planned to travel to Cuba to seek medical attention.
According to Thomas, Clarke returned to PICA to apply for his passport in his real name, and while he was there, the facial recognition system alerted the authorities that he had applied for a passport in another name,” said Thomas as he urged the court to be lenient to his client.
In handing down the sentence, presiding judge Diahann Bernard ordered Clarke to pay a fine of $100,000 or serve six months in prison.