Woman sentenced to six months in jail for fake PCR test in Belgium

On Monday, a criminal court in Brussels, Belgium, handed a six-month prison sentence to a woman who had submitted a fraudulent PCR test to an airline company.

When wanting to travel to Spain last year, an unnamed woman provided a PCR test to the airline she had planned to take. When the airline saw her certificate, they became suspicious and called the laboratory that supposedly performed the test as well as the police.

The laboratory instantly confirmed that her certificate was a counterfeit and further investigation found that the test had been taken in the name of someone else and that the test date had also been modified.

The woman stated that she had used Facebook to find a test centre but was unable to provide additional information on the test lab she used. As a result, the authorities were unable to corroborate her statement.

The woman was handed a €750 fine, which she refused to pay as she was convinced that her test was valid. She was therefore summoned to appear in criminal court and sentenced in absentia after failing to show up to her court hearing.

© BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK