A cruise ship worker lost his job and was ordered to pay $500 yesterday for having unprotected sex with a 15-year-old passenger.

Harold Sambola, 24, of Nicaragua, pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court to having unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl between the ages of 14 and 16.

Prosecutor Sgt. Anthony Mouchette said Sambola met the girl while waiting on her table aboard the cruise ship Song of America .

Sambola asked the girl to come dancing with him in Hamilton, and she agreed on the condition that her step-sister would come along, Sgt. Mouchette added.

Sambola and his friend met the girl and her step-sister later that night, and went into Hamilton.

The girl told Sambola that she was 17 years old on the way to the Oasis nightclub on Front Street, said Sgt. Mouchette, where they were eventually denied entry due to the girl's age.

They made their way to the Pier Six complex, also on Front Street, and had a few beers before they decided to go dancing.

Sgt. Mouchette said Sambola and the girl began kissing on the dance floor and when they left the nightclub, they went to the men's bathroom above Pier Six while his friend and the step-sister returned to the boat which was docked in Hamilton.

In the bathroom, Sambola and the girl entered one of the cubicles where the girl took off her clothes and the two had unprotected sex.

Sgt. Mouchette said when they returned to the cruise ship, the girl feared she might have been pregnant so she told her parents.

The parents reported the incident to the ship's captain who then informed Police.

Sambola was arrested on July 25 and he admitted having unprotected sex with the girl.

"I did not know she was 15, I thought she was 17,'' he said.

Duty counsel Kim Wilson told Magistrate Cheryl-Ann Mapp that Sambola was unaware the girl was 15, and the girl had admitted lying about her age to Police.

"The girl never resisted any advances and she took her clothes off on her own initiative,'' Ms Wilson said, adding that Sambola cooperated fully with Police and he had no previous convictions.

But Mrs. Mapp told Sambola before fining him: "People are not always what they seem to be. This young lady must be protected from herself.'' Sambola must pay the $500 fine before he can be freed from custody.