Man From Ghana Gets 18 Months’ Imprisonment For Entering Cayman With Fake British Passport

By Alric Lindsay

As a follow-up to our previous article, a Ghanaian national who flew into the Cayman Islands on a forged British passport — months after he had been deported for overstaying — has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, with the Chief Magistrate declaring that the courts have “an obligation to protect the integrity of our borders.”

Freddie Ofori-Agyekumhene appeared in Summary Court today, July 27, 2026, to be sentenced for four offences, including possession of a forged passport, illegal entry, uttering a false document and failing to answer a Customs & Border Control officer truthfully.  The foregoing sentence covers the first three offences, while the charge of failing to answer a CBC officer truthfully was withdrawn.

The Crown’s case

Opening the facts, Ben Brown, Crown Counsel from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the court that on April 16, 2026, at about 5.20 pm, Ofori-Agyekumhene on a Cayman Airways flight from Panama and presented a British passport in the name of “Freddie Pierre Van Pryce,” date of birth June 13, 1974 — the same identity he wrote on the back of his immigration arrival card.

While Ofori-Agyekumhene was being processed, DPP Crown Counsel said, Ofori-Agyekumhene asked to use the restroom and, after being allowed to do so, asked to go a second time. An immigration officer who went to the restroom recovered Ofori-Agyekumhene’s wallet, which contained several bank cards in his true name. Further enquiries confirmed that the British passport was a forgery, and Ofori-Agyekumhene was found to be holding a return ticket to Canada.

When the passport was scanned by a CBC officer, DPP Crown Counsel said, it failed authentication. Immigration data then revealed that the same traveller had visited the jurisdiction on December 29, 2025 and had been deported after overstaying. He paid a $500 administrative fine. The court heard that a woman Ofori-Agyekumhene, identified as his cousin, Candice Price, had earlier attended the airport to provide proof of that fine.

Ofori-Agyekumhene   was arrested, cautioned and taken into custody. The following day, DPP Crown Counsel said, immigration officers established his correct name and date of birth and confirmed that he is a Ghanaian national. In a cautioned interview, Ofori-Agyekumhene  “doubled down,” DPP Crown Counsel said — maintaining that his name was Freddie Pierre Van Pryce before giving no‑comment answers to the officers’ questions.

The defence’s case

Arguing on Ofori-Agyekumhene’s behalf, defence counsel Lauren Miranda asked the court to consider his early guilty plea, the number of days he spent in custody to date, personal circumstances suffered and that his actions were borne out of him wanting to see his wife.

The Chief Magistrate’s sentence

Sentencing Ofori-Agyekumhene, the Chief Magistrate took the most serious charge first, noting that it carries a maximum of five years, and observed that authorities show even a brief, first‑time illegal entry can attract 12 months’ imprisonment. She adopted a starting point of 30 months, aggravated, she said, by the fact that Ofori-Agyekumhene was only deported for four months before he came back.

The Chief Magistrate found his culpability to be high and put harm in category 2 only because the actual harm could not be quantified.

The Chief Magistrate added:

I have considered the potential harm.

We have an obligation to protect the integrity of our borders… and persons who take steps to deliberately breach the terms of our Customs and Border Control [Act] and our Immigration [Act] must face a custodial sentence which acts as a penalty and a deterrent to others.

Rejecting Ofori-Agyekumhene’s explanation that he had come to the Cayman Islands to see his wife, the Chief Magistrate said that “the excuse of coming here to see his wife … I find to be no excuse.”

His conduct, she said, was deliberate and calculated: “Mr Ofori‑Agyekumhene took deliberate steps to enter these islands illegally. He travelled a circuitous route to reach these islands. In one of his stops, that was where he engaged in getting the false passport.” It was, she added, “sophisticated … deliberate … it took precise planning, and he knew exactly what he was doing, which places his culpability as high,” while the potential harm too was high, “limited” only because he was caught.

From the 30‑month starting point, the Chief Magistrate gave credit for Ofori-Agyekumhene’s early guilty plea and a further two months for personal mitigation, reducing the sentence on that charge to 18 months’ imprisonment.

On the remaining charges, the Chief Magistrate subsumed the fake passport charge into the charge of uttering a false document.  Concerning this, the Chief Magistrate took a starting point of 36 weeks, increased it to 63 weeks for the aggravating features, then reduced it — with full credit and personal mitigation — to 38 weeks (about 9.5 months). The two sentences run concurrently, and the time already spent on remand was taken into account. The forged passport was ordered forfeited and destroyed.  Ofori-Agyekumhene was advised of his right to appeal.