By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
TWO women who attempted to travel to Eleuthera with falsified COVID-19 test results were each fined $5,000 on Friday.
Anthonique Mackey, 31, and Miquel Sturrup, 28, were arrested after they presented fraudulent Doctor’s Hospital COVID-19 RT-PCR negative tests to a COVID-19 ambassador at the Lynden Pindling International airport on April 16.
They both pleaded guilty to possessing and uttering a forged document when they appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt.
The prosecution said when the women presented the fake tests to the official at the airport that day, she noticed that the electronic documents did not have the specifications that they had on file for Doctor’s Hospital. After she reported the matter to police, the women were arrested. When questioned in custody, Sturrup said she went to Doctor’s Hospital but could not find the email they sent her. Mackey on the other hand, said she bought a fake test from a woman for $70. The court was told that further checks revealed that neither accused ever visited one of Doctor’s Hospital’s labs.
After accepting their guilty pleas, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt told the accused that their behaviour was unacceptable and could not be justified. As a result, she fined them $2,500 for having the fake tests and another $2,500 for presenting them to the COVID ambassador at the airport. She said if Mackey and Sturrup failed to pay the fines, they would each be sentenced to three months behind bars.
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