Passport fraud a concern for Internal Affairs

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 4

Passport fraud a concern for Internal Affairs

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

. in Wellington

Passport fraud has become a major concern, according to briefing papers prepared by the Internal Affairs Department

The department investigated at least one case a wee of apparently fraudulent passport applications, and believed there were other cases that did not come to notice. Three common methods used to obtain a valid passport by making false representation were producing the genuine birth certificate of a deceased person; producing the genuine birth certificate of a living person obtained with or without the

knowledge of that person; and supplying completely fictitious details. It was relatively simple to obtain the birth certificate of another person in New Zealand, the papers said. This practice had been highlighted in the film, “The Day of the Jacket” Death registrations were not cross-referenced back to birth registrations. There had also been 3382 passports lost or stolen, the papers said,

and very few of these were retrieved. One solution would be to have records of births, deaths, marriages, divorces, changes of name by deed poll and (in the case of children) custody orders made by the courts, all available on one computer.

The department had said this was not its responsibility but the matter had been discussed with the Justice Department and was supported by the police.