An associate of self-proclaimed Islamic sheik Junaid Thorne has been given a community-based order after pleading guilty to boarding domestic flights under a fake name.
Omer Abdirahman Issak, 22, pleaded guilty on Friday to two offences in Perth Magistrates Court stemming from flight bookings made in December for himself, Thorne and Mostafa Shiddiquzzaman, who both previously pleaded guilty in NSW.
The court heard Shiddiquzzaman booked the Virgin flights from Perth to Sydney on the Flight Centre website using his own credit card.
Frequent flyer points were also collected on Thorne's Velocity account.
When Thorne called to confirm the flights, he learned they had been cancelled, so he rebooked to travel to Sydney via Brisbane.
Virgin alerted the Australian Federal Police after the three men had taken the flights and CCTV footage was examined to identify the trio at the terminal, the court heard.
A boarding pass under a fake name was found during a search of Issak's home and he admitted his crimes.
When police asked why he was booked under the name Moses Vangura, Issak replied: "That's the thing, my name is so stupid, you know?"
Defence lawyer Paul Bodisco said his Somalia-born client, who moved to Australia in 1999 and was studying sociology at university, was remorseful and had good prospects of rehabilitation.
"This was poor decision-making ... but certainly not sophisticated offending," he said.
Issak was given a 12-month community-based order with supervision and program requirements.
The court heard his passport had already been cancelled.
Charges against Shiddiquzzaman and Thorne were discontinued in WA and the pair will be sentenced in NSW in June.
Thorne attracted the attention of authorities when he was deported in 2013 from Saudi Arabia, where he had lived for more than a decade, after being detained for protesting against his brother's imprisonment on terror-related charges.
He also drew the ire of Australians after posting online support for the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris and defending slain Melbourne teenage terrorism suspect Numan Haider.
Share
