When he appeared in court today, Magistrate Khadeen Palmer sentenced the offender to 11 months for illegal entry and five months for the false information charge.

Both sentences will run concurrently.

What the court heard happened

According to prosecutor Lyn Daley, the 60-year-old entered the BVI illegal on August 31, 2020.

When the ferry he was travelling on got intercepted by police officers, Daniel gave them a false name. He told the police that he was ‘Aubrey Smith’ but when searched, the officers found a wallet with his identification stating his name as ‘Aubrey Daniel’.

He was formally charged on September 3, 2020 and has been on remand roughly for 10 months. Magistrate Palmer noted that the time he spent in custody will be deducted from his sentence. However, she was unable to provide him with how much time he has left in custody.

Meanwhile, the court heard that on July 18 of last year, Daniel was a passenger on the Ocean Dreams Water Taxi Charter Service which received permission from the Ministry of Health to transport three passengers to St Thomas.

Only the two crew members returned to Tortola.

However, the 60-year-old father of 12 insisted that he had returned the same day, despite the return manifest showing otherwise. After seeing a copy of the return manifest, he said he stayed in St Thomas for 14 days in quarantine and returned to the territory via Jost Van Dyke before it went under lockdown.

Daniel was shown other documents which proved that his times did not add up and he then stated he came to Jost Van Dyke on a boat with materials but he did not contact Customs or the Immigration Department.

However, further checks showed that none of the ferry manifests had the name of Aubrey Daniel travelling between Tortola and Jost Van Dyke from July 18 to August 31, 2020.

Defence attorney Michael Maduro represented the offender.