'Vain' model escapes jail after cutting age in passport lie

An aspiring model who shaved eight years off her age in a bid to make it big in America narrowly escaped jail today.

Vain brunette Saskia Porter, then 35, was convinced she had to recapture her late twenties - at least on paper - if the Hollywood job offer she had received was to result in a signed contract.

Excited by the prospect that it might lead to a TV presenting job, Porter lost little time forging her birth certificate - changing 1971 into 1979.

Porter then used this to get a replacement passport, telling the authorities that her dog had dined on her old one, London's Southwark Crown Court heard.

Peter Zinner, prosecuting, explained that seven months later Porter sent it to the American embassy staff with a visa application.

'They checked her passport against their records which showed she had not only travelled to the US in the past but that on this occasion her date of birth had been eight years earlier.

'They promptly reported her to the Passport Agency in Glasgow.'

He told the court that shortly afterwards their colleagues at the Ecclestone Square office in Victoria called Porter in for an interview.

'She was questioned by an official and the police were called. She was then arrested and taken to a police station and interviewed.

'She said she had applied for the passport because she had the opportunity for a modelling job in the US and the prospect of presenting a documentary which required an individual younger than she was.'

Judge Christopher Hardy then inquired: 'Were there any issues with regard to terrorism or illegal immigration and cross-border travel?'

'No,' replied Mr Zinner. 'She is a British citizen and the offence had been wholly motivated by a desire to take up employment.'

Porter, now 36, of Lewisham, south-east London, pleaded guilty to making an untrue statement for the purpose of obtaining a passport, and to possessing false identity documents.

Sad: model was motivated by vanity, not 'nefarious reasons', said the judge

Passing sentence, the judge told her: 'Although, of course, normally it is a woman's privilege not to tell the exact truth about her age, that does not apply when you are completing details for an application for a passport.

'Quite clearly this case is a serious matter.

'But while this case would ordinarily attract an immediate sentence of imprisonment due to the security risks to both the United States and the United Kingdom, it was motivated by vanity rather than for a nefarious reason.

'So I can find exceptional circumstances that would allow me to suspend the nine month sentence I would otherwise have passed for 12 months.'

He added that she would also have to pay £350 prosecution costs.