A US immigration officer based in Dublin has been found guilty of document fraud.

Roger J Kiley (42), who falsely told an Irish woman he met on a dating website that he was a divorced US customs attache, pleaded guilty to one count of "false impersonation" and one count of making a false statement at a court hearing in Miami in September, The Irish Times reports.

Kiley, who moved to Ireland with his wife and son, was a supervisory customs and border protection officer assigned to the pre-clearance operations office in Dublin Airport between 2009 and 2011.

In 2010, he met a Dublin woman through an online dating site, telling her that he was a customs attache at the US embassy in Dublin, a position that did not exist. Kiley also falsely claimed he would arrange for the embassy to lease a house that was owned by her sister and in which she lived.

According to documents filed with the US district court in Florida, in February 2011 Kiley obtained a draft lease from the US embassy in Dublin to create a fake lease for the residence.

In July, he created a fake letter on US embassy letterhead purporting to authorize the pair’s relocation to the US and forged the signature of the deputy chief of mission on the letter.

The woman shipped her personal belongings, with an estimated value of $2,500 (€1,900), to the US in the belief that she would be relocating to Miami, Florida.

She went to the US embassy in October 2011, where she discovered that the lease was fraudulent and the letter authorizing her relocation to the US was false.

In a Florida court on Friday, Kiley was sentenced to eight months’ home confinement, three years’ probation, 150 hours of community service and restitution of $2,500.