Mom gets 84 months for passport fraud

A Sangre Grande mother of six was yesterday jailed by a San Fernando magistrate for 84 months after she pleaded guilty to seven fraud charges, including uttering a fraudulent passport. As sentence was passed on 41-year-old Hanifa Mohammed by acting deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington in the First Court, she bowed her head and remained silent.

The charges were laid by Cpl Michael Marshall of the San Fernando CID, while Cpl Wendell Fernando prosecuted. Mohammed received 12 months on each of the seven charges. Since the sentences will run concurrently, Mohammed will only serve 12 months. She was charged with four counts of uttering false documents, two counts of making false declarations on two passport forms and one count of presenting an identification card under false pretences. Cpl Fernando told the court that on Tuesday, April 13, the accused went to the Passport and Immigra-tion Office on Coffee Street, San Fernando, with three passport application forms filled out in the names of Allison Ann Gomes, Divendra Rahman and Darren Rahman. Mohammed was at the time accompanied by two young boys whom she identified by the two latter names and said they were her sons. She then gave Immigration officials three application forms and three birth certificates. The birth certificates carried the same three names as the forms. She also presented a Trinidad and Tobago identification card bearing the name Allison Ann Gomes.

The Immigration Officer noticed certain discrepancies in the birth certificates and handed them over to the complainant, Cpl Marshall, who later informed Mohammed of the offences she had committed, to which she replied, “Mr Marshall, I wanted money so I try a ting.” Yesterday, Mohammed’s attorney Eugene Tiah pleaded for a bond of good behaviour to be imposed on his client. He said his client ingested gramoxone in 1985 because of domestic and marital problems. Tiah added, “She just managed to survive.” Tiah even said the court might be an “accessory to murder,” if Mohammed died in custody given her health condition. But these arguments did not impress the magistrate who replied, “Place her on a bond on what basis? I don’t think so, she has shown serious dishonesty.” He then passed the sentence on Mohammed.