Chinese businessman deported for fake passport

A Chinese national who attempted to board a flight to Canada with a fraudulent passport is to be deported back to China following an order from the St James Parish Court last Wednesday.

Thirty-five-year-old businessman Jiaxlang Zheng pleaded guilty to uttering a forged document when he appeared before presiding judge Sandria Wong-Small. He entered the plea with the assistance of an interpreter.

The court was told that on October 27, Zheng attempted to board an Air Canada flight using an Irish passport with his name on it.

The passport was inspected and found to have been tampered with, and Zheng was subsequently arrested.

It was also disclosed that Zheng had previously entered Jamaica on October 6 using a Chinese passport.

Attorney-at-law H Charles Johnson, who represented Zheng, gave the court an explanation for his client's situation.

"The gentleman was landed in Jamaica until January 5 next year, and he had a need to go to Canada and sought the advice of a certain person. He doesn't speak any English at all, so he appears to have been misunderstood, and a document was presented to him and he was told that he had to use this document to go to Canada, so he thought he was doing the right thing," said Johnson.

"If he is going to take to the airport a passport which is not the passport he used to come here, he must have known something was wrong. I do not believe it, full stop," Wong-Small answered flatly.

The court subsequently issued a deportation order for Zheng, and he was ordered to pay a fine of J$150,000 or spend six months in prison at hard labour.