A MALAYSIAN man who used a counterfeit passport in a bid to get a bank account and an overdraft has been jailed.

Kok Cheng Yap, 40, is now set to be deported once his 14-month prison term comes to an end.

He went to the Clydesdale Bank branch in Causeyside Street, Paisley, on September 6 last year in possession of fake documents to try to open an account.

Yap handed over a counterfeit Chinese passport, in the name of Qishu Yu, as well as a forged utility bill bearing the same name and showing an address for Linwood, but staff became suspicious and contacted the bank’s fraud department.

Sensing he had been rumbled, Yap fled the bank on foot but was arrested by officers nearby.

Yap struck a deal with prosecutors at Paisley Sheriff Court to plead guilty to one charge in exchange for a second being dropped.

He admitted a charge of fraud by trying to open a bank account while pretending to be someone else.

In exchange, a charge that he broke the Identity Documents Act 2010 by having a false passport on him “with an improper intention” was dropped by prosecutors.

Sentence was deferred for background reports and Yap returned to the dock last week to learn his fate.

Defence solicitor James Arrol said Yap had come to the UK to earn money to pay his sick father’s nursing home fees after his sister, who paid the bills, passed away.

He added that his client was given somewhere to stay by an acquaintance and was asked to open the bank account with the documents he took, in exchange for £100.

After being informed the Home Office is to deport Yap in due course, Sheriff Tom McCartney jailed him for 14 months, reduced from 18 months, and backdated this to September, when Yap was first remanded in custody.