THE 78-year-old Netherlander, who pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of American Express traveller’s cheques last week, has been fined $20,000 with the alternative of 10 days imprisonment.

Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo imposed the monetary penalty on Robert Wilfred Lobo, at New Amsterdam Court in Berbice on Monday afternoon.

He had confessed to the crime last Friday when he admitted having 37 of the vouchers and told the Court he did not know they had been stolen.

The convict claimed the cheques were purchased on the Netherlands border.

Lobo successfully changed some for G$287, 000 after they were transferred to him in Suriname through Western Union.

The bespectacled man, who was helped into the courtroom by a policewoman, had been remanded to prison over the weekend, pending sentence.

The Court was told that Lobo was born in the Netherlands, came to Guyana via Suriname and travelled to New Amsterdam, where he tendered some of the cheques at two banking institutions in the township.

However, although he was successful in cashing nine at one of the banks, he was prevented from doing so at the other, after investigations, by local Police, revealed that the cheques had been stolen in New York.