A 21-year-old man who dived into Castle Harbour to escape airport customs officials was fined nearly $3,000 when he appeared in Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Luke Lindo, of Hamilton Parish, pleaded guilty on January 27 to obstructing a customs officer, climbing between a partition and a wall, and leaving the airport without authority after arriving on an American Airlines flight on December 28.

He swam across Castle Harbour to the Grotto Bay Beach Hotel but turned himself in to Police two days later.

In court yesterday, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Cindy Clarke said: “This is one of the more serious obstructions we have seen in this court.”

She said the maximum sentence for the offence was six months in prison.

Defence lawyer Susan Mulligan said Lindo panicked. “This is not a young man who should go to jail,” she said.

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said: “I’m not going to send him to prison but I want him to be clear that I don’t accept his story.”

Mr Tokunbo fined Lindo $2,840 for all three offences, to be paid by April 14 or he will spend four months in jail.