By Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

A Bulgarian man who entered Canada using a bogus passport has had his sentenced increased to one day in jail after a Crown appeal.

Rossen Dimitrov Daskalov, 40, pleaded guilty in Provincial Court to using a false passport and was given a conditional discharge sentence last Dec. 10.

The man admitted he purchased the fraudulent passport in the name of Laslo Halasz for ,500 US, knowing using a phony passport to gain entry into Canada was an offence.

Daskalov managed to enter Canada successfully with the bogus passport at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Aug. 31, 2008.

At the time, he possessed a return ticket from Toronto to Amsterdam dated Sept. 30, 2008, in the name of Laslo Halasz.

Daskalov then flew to Vancouver and attempted to cross into U.S. at the Pacific Highway border crossing on Sept. 6, 2008. When he presented the fraudulent passport to U.S. Customs officials, he was advised that he required a visa to enter the United States.

He completed the forms for a visa and was fingerprinted. It was then that his true identity was determined.

The man had earlier been fingerprinted and deported from the U.S.

In 1994, Daskalov travelled to the U.S. where he sought political asylum. He lived there until 2005.

With the 1999 change of government in Bulgaria, an American immigration judge found that Daskalov was no longer in danger and ordered him deported him back to Bulgaria. At the time of his deportation, Daskalov left a number of personal belongings in the U.S., including some jewelry.

His purpose of returning to the U.S. was to reclaim his personal belongings, including his jewelry.

He had applied for a tourist visa at the Canadian Embassy in Romania, but his application was refused in July 2008 over concerns he would not leave once he was in Canada.

The Crown appealed the conditional discharge, arguing the sentence was unfit for the crime, which carries a maximum of five years in prison.

Daskalov's lawyer, Phil Rankin, submitted that a conditional discharge was a fit sentence, noting the man had an otherwise unblemished record in Canada, having abided by all of his bail conditions for the two years here and supported himself through steady employment.

The lawyer argued that Daskalov posed no security threat and only entered Canada to retrieve his personal belongings from the U.S., then intended to live in Canada and be reunited with his wife, whom he met while in Canada.

The effect of the conditional discharge allowed Daskalov's wife to sponsor him to live in Canada because he was deemed to have no criminal conviction after his six months probation period expired.

A three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal decided this week the conditional discharge was an unfit sentence and increased the sentence to one day in jail, "resulting in an effective sentence of four months."

The court gave Daskalov double credit for pre-trial custody -- after his initial arrest, he spent eight weeks in jail until he was released on bail.

Daskalov now is deemed inadmissible to Canada and faces deportation.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Bulgarian+entered+Canada+with+bogus+passport+given+jail+sentence/4585318/story.html#ixzz1J2dPOZvW