Man jailed over passport forgery [1]
Monday, July 29, 2019 - 17:16
A 44-year-old man was sentenced to one-year nine-months imprisonment, after being convicted in the Supreme Court of making a false statement and dealing with a forged birth certificate in order to obtain a Tongan passport.
Tivionale Fanua was found guilty by a jury on four counts that included two for making a false statement for the purpose of obtaining a Tongan passport and another two for knowingly dealing with forged documents, in this case a birth certificate under a fake name, Nalesoni Fanua.
Hon. Mr Justice Cato in sentencing the prisoner on July 26, said the Courts must uphold the integrity of the Tongan passport system so that it does not collapse.
He said any effort to gain false passport by corrupt manner, as what happened here ,must be punished severely.
The prisoner who expressed remorse told the judge he regretted his offence.
He was then sentenced to two-years nine-months imprisonment.
But due to mitigation factors, including his remorse and appeal from his church's reverends that he had changed his ways and planned to enter Sia’atoutai Theological College next year, the judge suspended the final 12-months of his sentence.
This meant he serves one-year nine-months imprisonment. The suspension is on strict conditions that the prisoner must not commit any offences during the suspension time and must not consume alcohol, among others.
"This is not a free pass."
Failure to abide by these conditions will see him back in court to serve his suspended sentence.
The Court also ordered for the cancellation of the false Tongan passport under the name Nalesoni Fanua.
Corruption
The background of this case related to a co-accused Sione ‘Ahohako, a former civil servant who together with this prisoner committed the offence in 2012.
At the time, the prisoner was on the “no fly” list for an offence. He got assistance from his friend ‘Ahohako who at the time was working as an IT personnel at the Ministry of Justice.
‘Ahohako forged a birth certificate for the prisoner under the name Nalesoni Tupou, which the prisoner used in his application to obtain a Tongan passport, which he got.
The Court heard, the prisoner lost this passport and in 2015 had sought for another.
‘Ahohako, on the other hand was jailed for this crime and others relating to passport offences.