A Jamaican woman was sentenced to four days in prison in a British Virgin Islands Court last week after she pleaded guilty to overstaying.

According to a report on bvinews.com, alternative Magistrate Richard Rowe, agreed to expedite the deportation of the Jamaican national, saying he would not allow her to add to the overcrowding at Her Majesty's prison, and burden the territory's taxpayers.

Kerisha Campbell, 28, from Kingston, was arrested and charged on January 14 after trying to leave the BVI on an expired passport nearly 10 years after the expiration of her stay on August 8, 2003.

On appearance in the Magistrate's Court on the day, Campbell admitted to overstaying her welcome, and was sentenced. She was also given the option between paying $450 and spending an additional month in jail.

Outlining the allegations against her, Prosecutor Sarah Benjamin said Campbell landed in the BVI for a visit in July 2003. That was before Jamaicans were required to obtain a visa to enter the territory.

On January 14, this year she turned up at the Terrence B. Lettsome International Airport in the territory to collect a travel ticket that was purchased in the US Virgin Islands.

While doing so, she asked a travel agent if she could have made the journey back to Jamaica on her passport that had expired some time after it was last stamped when she entered the BVI in 2003.

Campbell was directed to immigration officers at the airport. She was taken to Road Town Police Station where she was arrested and charged.