Court fines 40-year- old woman shs200,000 for lying about her age

The Buganda Road Magistrates Court in Kampala has fined a woman, shs200,000 after pleading guilty to lying about her age.

Jacqueline Kaitesi, 40, a resident of Namugongo was on Wednesday arraigned in court and charged with alteration of her age while applying for a passport at the Ministry of Internal Affairs when she told officers at the passport office that she was 31 years.

It was alleged that the offence was committed in 2017 when Kaitesi changed the dates of birth in her passport from December,12, 1980 to December 12, 1989.

Court heard that Kaitesi's motive was to secure employment as a security guard in Dubai but she was found out by a keen immigration officer at Entebbe International Airport who looked at her travel documents and noticed that the age written in the passport didn’t match with her facial appearance.

The immigration officer then asked for Kaitesi’s National ID which revealed her true age as 40 having been born in 1980 and not 1989 as indicated in her passport.

She was then arrested by immigration police and handed over to Internal Affairs which took her to court where she faced charges of alteration of dates of birth on a  passport.

Kaitesi pleaded guilty to the offence and asked for leniency since she is a first offender a mother of two children who are currently living with their grandparents.

The trial grade one magistrate, Gladys Kamasanyu fined her to a tune of  shs200,000 so to deter her or any other person from doing the same.