A passenger tried to board a plane at Heathrow Airport with a fake Covid-19 certificate purporting to show that he was fit to fly, a court heard.
Emmanuel Nere Mehari, 27, pleaded guilty to possessing the forged document after presenting it to staff ahead of a flight from London to Egypt on April 12.
The UK's Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court heard that Mr Mehari had failed to answer basic questions about the document, which purported to come from a clinic, but drew suspicion from a desk assistant who had not seen one like it before.
The clinic in question subsequently called the airport to say that Mr Mehari had not been there and that the certificate had been altered.
Mehari’s lawyer, Sarj Patel, said his client had been on his way to Egypt to visit a sick relative but did not realise a certificate was needed.
Mr Patel said Mr Mehari had begun to panic and made a “foolish decision to go along with someone who was attempting to help him”.
“He didn’t even look at [the certificate] ... it was a decision made minutes before he presented it to the desk assistant," he said.
Jyothi Somavarapu, prosecuting, said Mr Mehari had “started to become argumentative” when questioned.
He was unable to prove where the test certificate had come from and did not have an email to back it up, Ms Somavarapu said.
The consequences of using a fake certificate “could have been disastrous”, she said.
Mr Patel said Mr Mehari was remorseful for his actions.
Mr Mehari, of north-west London, pleaded guilty to possessing or controlling an article for use in fraud.
He was sentenced to a 12-month community order and 180 hours of unpaid work. He was also fined £180.
BRAZIL%20SQUAD
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
South Africa's T20 squad
Duminy (c), Behardien, Dala, De Villiers, Hendricks, Jonker, Klaasen (wkt), Miller, Morris, Paterson, Phangiso, Phehlukwayo, Shamsi, Smuts.
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
