PRINCIPAL Magistrate Faith McGusty on Wednesday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, sentenced a 31-year-old woman to six months imprisonment for making a false declaration in order to obtain a Guyana passport.

Unique Angelica Hope of Thomas Street, Kitty, after spending almost a month on remand, opted to change her plea to guilty and confessed that on January 17, 2018, at the Central Immigration and Passport Office, Georgetown, for the purpose of procuring a new passport, she signed a written document stating that she was Coretta Hope.

Police Prosecutor Annalisa Brummell told the court that Hope was given her first passport and went to Barbados. However, the defendant overstayed and was deported.

When the defendant returned to Guyana, she obtained another passport under the name of ‘Onika Ann Benjamin’ and went back to Barbados. Again, the defendant overstayed her time and was deported.

On January 17, 2018, the defendant, along with her mother, went to the Central Immigration and Passport Office and applied for a passport, using the name of ‘Coretta Hope’, who is her disabled sister.

Brummell noted that the defendant’s mother falsely declared that Unique was Coretta, knowing that she (the defendant) was not.

Magistrate McGusty sentenced Hope to six months imprisonment along with a fine of $40,000.