Trini jailed for passport fraud

A Trinidadian national has been imprisoned here for passport fraud.

Robbie Johnson, 31, was sentenced to 15 months Monday when he pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain a SVG passport by false representation. He was the second foreign national to have been arrested in weeks for falsifying Immigration documents. {{more}}

Johnson previously travelled to Canada on a Trinidad and Tobago passport bearing the name Robbie Rawlston Johnson. He was deported then and went back to Trinidad. He travelled to this country earlier this year, claiming he had Vincentian parentage. Reports say his mother, Urcella Johnson, was born at Escape.

Johnson applied for a St. Vincent and the Grenadines passport, tendering a birth certificate under the name Robbie Rawlston Johnson. He was granted a SVG passport on August 31, with an expiry date of August 30, 2014.

After receiving the SVG passport, Johnson again travelled to Canada, but Immigration authorities there discovered that he was previously deported from the country and he was denied entry.

Six weeks after he received the first SVG passport, Johnson applied for another SVG passport, this time using the name Antone Raymond St. Clair Johnson. But, through the vigilance of an Immigration official, it was discovered that he was granted a passport less than two months before.

Reports say the birth certificate bearing the name Robbie Rawlston Johnson had a birth date of May 23, 1973. The other birth certificate, bearing the name Antone Raymond St. Clair Johnson, had a birth date of September 6, 1972.

The Trinidad national was arrested and charged for the crime on Sunday.