A JAMAICAN who bought a stolen passport to escape his native country was given a suspended prison sentence.

Aylesbury Crown Court heard on Monday how Moses Lawson bought the passport while still in Jamaica believing it to be fictitious. The passport was in fact stolen, the court heard, and belonged to Justin McKeown the identity used by Lawson during his time in Britain.

He was found out in March when police stopped him for driving without insurance and without a driving licence in Plomer Hill Avenue, Downley.

CameronBrown, prosecuting, said police inquiries established Lawson's assumed identity really existed, and that Lawson had been fined in 1999 in that name for other motoring offences.

Lawson, 27, of The Pastures, Downley, pleaded guilty to perverting public justice by giving police a false name in September 1999 and using a false passport, driving uninsured and driving without a licence on March 10.

Lawson told police he paid £123 for the passport to escape abuse and suffering in Jamaica in 1998. Paul Wakerley, mitigating, said Lawson was married and had Home Office permission to stay in the UK for another four years.

Lawson was given nine months jail, suspended for two years, and banned from driving for six months.