A 30-year-old dri­ver at a fu­ner­al home has ap­peared in court charged with us­ing a fraud­u­lent ed­u­ca­tion cer­tifi­cate dur­ing a po­lice re­cruit­ment ex­er­cise, last week.

Daniel Med­ica, of Pe­tit Val­ley, ap­peared be­fore Mag­is­trate Ker­ri Honare-Nar­ine in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trate charged with at­tempt­ing to gain ad­mis­sion in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) through fraud.

Dress­ing in a “Nehru suit,” which is typ­i­cal­ly worn by po­lice of­fi­cers for court hear­ings, Med­ica stood silent­ly in the pris­on­er en­clo­sure and plead­ed not guilty to the charge.

Med­ica, who was last em­ployed as a dri­ver with L Arm­strong Fu­ner­al Ser­vice, is ac­cused of sub­mit­ting a fake CXC cer­tifi­cate dur­ing a re­cruit­ment ex­er­cise at the Po­lice Train­ing Acad­e­my in St James, last Thurs­day.

If con­vict­ed, Med­ica will face a $10,000 fine and up to a year in prison.

Dur­ing the hear­ing, Med­ica’s lawyer Karunaa Bis­ram­s­ingh ap­plied for a re­duc­tion in the $100,000 bail he was grant­ed when he was ar­rest­ed, last week.

Po­lice pros­e­cu­tor Sgt Azard Ali did not ob­ject as he stat­ed that Med­ica had no pre­vi­ous con­vic­tions or oth­er pend­ing charges.

Honare-Nar­ine agreed and re­duced his bail to $20,000.