Woman fined $300,000 for false declaration

A Manchester woman who applied for a passport under a false name in 2003, then got arrested when she tried to travel overseas earlier this year, has been ordered to pay a fine or do prison time.

Patsy Hoyt, 60, of a Mandeville address, pleaded guilty to making a false declaration when she appeared before the St James Parish Court on Wednesday. The court was told that on February 12, 2003, Hoyt went to the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency office in Montego Bay, St James, and applied for a passport under another name. She received the passport 12 days later. It is further understood that on an undisclosed date earlier this year, Hoyt was arrested while attempting to board a flight to the United States, after anomalies were detected on the system regarding her passport information.

In attempting to ease Hoyt's penalty, defence lawyer Henry McCurdy told presiding Judge Netiesha Fairclough-Hylton that the defendant had never used the passport from the time she received it in 2003.

"She just buried her husband two weeks ago, and her son filed for her...she checked in to go on the aircraft, and she was removed from the aircraft because something was wrong with the passport. She has never travelled on the passport, and she apologises to the court...I am going to ask you to lend a hand of mercy," said McCurdy.

But Judge Fairclough-Hylton stressed that the penalty must be a deterrent.

"If I know that you have $1 million and I fine you $1 million and you can pay it, why would I fine you $1 million? How is it a deterrent?" asked Judge Fairclough-Hylton.

"I do not impose sentences that are a slap on the wrist," she added, before ordering that Hoyt should pay the $300,000 fine or serve three months in prison.