"Your Honour, I beg you some leniency, I was doing it for my wife," Steven Lake told the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on Friday.

Lake pleaded guilty, with explanation, to conspiracy to deceive and obtaining a passport by false pretense.

Wanted to visit wife

Lake told the court that he did it with hopes of seeing his wife this year.

"Am a married man of five years, with kids, and I just wanted to see my wife. That's all I was thinking when I tried to obtain this passport in another person's name," he said.

Lake was ordered by Senior Resident Magistrate Glen Brown to pay a fine of $50,000, or spend three months in prison.

"I'm telling you the truth, I can't find $50,000. If you could give me some time, your Honour?" he asked after being sentenced.