The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

AN Abaco man who paid nearly $200 for a fake COVID test that he presented to officials at the airport in an attempt to return home must now pay $5,000 to avoid spending three months behind bars.

He was charged with possessing and uttering a forged document minutes before another man, who tried to use falsified COVID test results to travel to Bimini, was ordered to pay the same fine for the offences.

In the first case, Kendro Murray appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt after he presented a fake Doctors Hospital negative PCR test to a COVID ambassador at Lynden Pindling International Airport on April 11.

The court heard when Murray showed the fake tests to the official, she noticed discrepancies with the specimen number on the document. As a result, she asked Murray to produce the original Doctors Hospital email which would have had the relevant information, but he was unable to. The ambassador then contacted the hospital who informed her that the test was fraudulent and had not been issued by their health system. Murray was subsequently arrested.

In an interview with police he owned up to the offence and said he paid a woman he knew in Abaco $195 for the forged test. He claimed the results were emailed to him, but he did not know how to get in contact with the woman who sent him the document.

In the second incident, police said Julian Sands, 43, was arrested after he presented a fake Doctors Hospital COVID-19 negative test result specimen to an ambassador at LPIA on April 12.

This time, the court was told Sands, who was trying to travel to Bimini, presented an electronic copy of the fake test to an ambassador on his iPhone. The prosecution said when the test was examined closely, the official noticed the specimen number on Sands’ form also differed from the one they had on file for Doctors Hospital. When they contacted the medical facility, persons there also confirmed the test was fraudulent. As a result of the investigation, Sands was arrested and charged.

After both men pleaded guilty, their attorney Devard Francis, told the magistrate that Sands had cooperated with police from the onset of the investigation. He also said Murray was repentant for his actions and insisted both men made a “silly mistake” they had deeply come to regret.

In response, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt told Murray the court could not take a “casual or lackadaisical” approach to the situation as his actions had the potential of affecting the entire country in the midst of what appeared to be a “third surge”. She also told Sands that each citizen had the responsibility to act in a manner that would assist in “breaking the back of the vicious disease”.

As a result, she fined each man $2,500 for having the fake tests and another $2,500 each for presenting them to officials at the airport.

Yesterday, Murray and Sands were required to pay half of the $5,000 penalty prior to their release. They were also given seven days to pay the balance.

Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt said if they failed to meet the deadline, they would each be convicted of the offences and sentenced to three months in prison.