Haitian man jailed in Bahamas for passport fraud

A magistrate’s court in The Bahamas has sentenced a 26-year-old Haitian man to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to acquiring a Bahamian passport, NIB smart card and voter’s card through fraud.

Wakens Saint-Matin pleaded guilty to charges of possession of a forged document, uttering a forged document and fraud by false pretences, with the assistance of a Creole interpreter, when he appeared before Senior Magistrate Anishka Isaacs.

The charges stem from Saint-Matin’s arrest at the Lynden Pindling International Airport on December 18, 2024. Prosecutors told the court that he had arrived from the United States and presented a passport bearing registration number AA289543 to clear immigration.

However, the immigration officer suspected the passport was fraudulent and detained him before alerting the police.

The court heard that investigations revealed Saint-Matin obtained the passport in March 2024 by using a forged immigration certificate of registration. He later used the passport to acquire a voter’s card and an NIB smart card.

When questioned by police, Saint-Matin insisted that he acted alone and obtained the documents himself.

Magistrate Isaacs, after taking into consideration the time Saint-Matin had already spent in custody, sentenced him to an additional two years in prison and ordered that the fraudulent documents be destroyed.

Saint-Matin will be handed over to immigration authorities for deportation upon completion of his sentence.

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