The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A WOMAN who tried to travel to Grand Bahama with a fake COVID-19 test results was yesterday fined $5,000.

Tori Yuen was arrested after she presented a fake Doctors Hospital COVID-19 RT PCR negative test to a COVID ambassador at Lynden Pindling International Airport on May 15.

She pleaded guilty to possessing and uttering a forged document when she appeared before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt.

The court was told that when Yuen, who was attempting to travel to Freeport, was asked to show the results of her COVID test, she produced an electronic document that was stored on her phone. The prosecution said when the ambassador examined the results closely, she discovered it did not have the specifications that matched the one they had on file for Doctors Hospital.

When the official contacted the hospital to make inquiries, it was revealed that Yuen never visited the medical facility. She was subsequently arrested and taken to a nearby police station. When she was questioned in custody, she admitted the offence and said the fake test results were forwarded to her phone by a person unknown to her. She also said the last COVID test she took was sometime in January.

After listening to the facts, Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt accepted Yuen’s guilty pleas and fined her $2,500 for having the fraudulent test results and another $2,500 for showing them to an official at the airport. She said if Yuen failed to pay the fines, she would be sentenced to eight weeks in prison.