- False birth certificate hurts migration hopes

A Corporate Area man's decision to furnish the US Embassy in Kingston with fake birth certificate may have cost him an opportunity to migrate and join his wife overseas.

Stephen McCarthy reportedly told the police that he used the fake document because he did not have a clean police record. He pleaded guilty to forgery when he appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Thursday.

It is reported that on March 24, about 3 p.m., investigators on duty at the US Embassy Overseas Criminal Investigations Office received a birth certificate from the Fraud Prevention Unit to verify its authenticity. The birth certificate belonged to Stephen John Wayne McCarthy, the defendant. A day later, the Criminal Records Office notified the investigators that the document was tampered with.

McCarthy attended the US Embassy on March 30 for a follow-up interview when he was informed of the offence of forgery.

When cautioned, he reportedly said, "A because me wife a file fi me and me did get convicted fi gun inna 1995, and me couldn't get a clean record."

Cautioned again, he allegedly asked: "This mean mi filing mash up now, mi boss?"

After hearing the reports read by the prosecutor, Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Cole-Montaque responded, "It look so," followed by laughter from the public in the courtroom.

"You see how citizens mash up unnu own life. Your wife a file for you and you know what, this is a conviction again. But it is so much a part of us, as Jamaicans that we have to cut corner, we have to find out somebody who connected, and the legal straight way method is there. You had a previous conviction and you could have gone through the proper legal channels to have your record cleared. So the filing really mash up," the judge said.

Cole-Montaque asked McCarthy if he was aware that there are provisions in law that allows for criminal records to be expunged after a certain time period had passed. He indicated that he was made aware, after he was charged by the police.

Cole-Montaque told McCarthy she will be imposing a fine of $100,000 for the offence, but would give him time to accumulate the funds. He was made the subject of a fingerprint order and told to return to court May 12 for sentencing.