The Supreme Court has convicted a man of trying to falsely obtain a passport.
Mr Justice Cato found Taufa Fevaleaki guilty of making a false statement when he applied for a passport in June 2014.
He applied for the passport under the name Sosaia Taufa Finau and did not disclose, as was required, any other names by which he was known.
In interview he said the name he had most used and been known as was Taufa Fevaleaki.
He said he had always had two names.
Evidence was given by an officer from the Ministry of Justice that there were in existence two authentic birth records for Sosaia Taufa Finau and for Taufa Fevaleaki.
The accused obtained an earlier passport R01574 in the name of Taufa Fevaleaki in 2002 and had travelled quite extensively on this between 2005 and 2011.
On March 18, 2012, however, a no fly order had been placed against him because of a court hearing relating to maintenance payments. This passport was not been cancelled and expired in February 2015.
However, the stop order meant that he could not use this to depart from Tonga. This led him to apply for a second passport in the name of Sosaia Taufa Finau which he made application for on June 12, 2014, signing it as S T Finau.
Although all the details were filled out as personal details in the first part of the form that related to personal identity, a box that related “to other names you are known by” was not completed.
“He admitted to the police officer who interviewed him that he would not have obtained the passport had he told Immigration Tonga that he had a passport in the name of Taufa Fevaleaki,” the judge said.
“I infer from this that he deliberately did not insert the name Taufa Fevaleaki in the passport application because he well knew the likelihood they would search to see whether there was a passport issued under this name.
“His motivation was plainly to obtain a passport under his second name and it is also plain beyond any reasonable doubt that he signed this application knowing full well that it was incomplete and accordingly false.
“I find all essential elements established on this charge beyond reasonable doubt and he is convicted to await sentence.”
