Fake job letter lands man in hot water

A Corporate Area man who presented a fake job letter while applying for a US visa pleaded guilty to forgery and uttering forged documents on Thursday.

Despite the guilty plea, the defendant, Kirkland Johnson, argued that he was scammed by a local travel agency.

"Me get scam Your Honour. Can call it that because one visa place say my work details can't work with the application," Johnson told the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court. According to prosecutors, Johnson went to the US Embassy for an interview and submitted a job letter stating that he works at Caribbean Cement Company Ltd to support his application. It was noticed that the letter was falsified.

"I am a truck driver Your Honour," the defendant said after pleading guilty.

"Yuh see how yuh salt up yourself, Sir. A now yuh caah get the visa. I think this was brazen," Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Cole-Montaque said.

Johnson was made the subject of a fingerprint order and was fined $60,000 or six months' imprisonment at hard labour for forgery and $80,000 or nine months' imprisonment at hard labour for uttering forged documents.