Posted on 07/29/2008 6:06:50 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Thousands of blank passports worth £2.5million on the black market were stolen from a van after the driver stopped to buy a chocolate bar, it emerged last night.
Security experts warned the theft of the 3,000 passports and visas, which were destined for British embassies abroad, had handed a 'real coup' to terrorists, illegal immigrants and fraudsters.
The Foreign Office, which was in charge of the delivery, admitted it was the latest in a string of serious security breaches by the Government.
The documents were being transported in a non-armoured white Citroen van from Oldham in Greater Manchester, to London when the thieves struck.
Passports sent within the UK are normally transported in armoured vehicles, with drivers banned from making unauthorised stops.
But the Foreign Office said it had never used armoured vehicles to carry documents intended for foreign destinations as they were inflexible and expensive. It now faces demands for a full inquiry into the procedure.
The driver stopped for his chocolate just minutes into the trip to RAF Northolt on Monday morning.
A raider jumped into the vehicle and a second delivery man in the passenger seat was attacked.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Planned...
He could have at least thrown the chocolate bar at them.
There's the problem. Using French vehicles to do the work of the Brit Gov't.
That was my thinking too - otherwise they would have to follow him and keep waiting for an opening.
You’d hope that they’d have the numbers on these standardized and identifiable by lot number....
He better have gotten a Snickers because he isn’t going anywhere for a while.
... but glad I don't carry a British passport.
Sounds that way to me, too.
Was a smart idea to make him less of a target for crime... guide told us that valid U.S. and Canadian passports were worth $25,000 on the black market.
No telling what their value is today.
Sounds very suspicious
The driver stops for some sweets and there just happens to be a thug there that attacks his partner and steals a van with a bunch of blank passports and visas inside.
Sounds like the driver was the inside man on this job.
Come on. Who stops to buy a chocolate bar like that? The driver was in on the theft.
Considerable work would still be needed:
“A consignment of 3,000 “useless” blank biometric passports has been stolen on its way to British embassies throughout the world. Or at least, the Identity & Passport Service says they’re useless.
“IPS’ claim is based on the standard, highly optimistic party line that, as the passports contain a chip, they can’t be used to produce fake passports. The chip is intended to hold a copy of the data printed in the passport, so in order to produce a fully functional fake, a passport forger would need to overcome this hurdle. And even if they could, a check of the passport against UK records would reveal that it wasn’t on file. The serial numbers of the passports are also known so they ought to show up on watchlists if the numbers aren’t changed, while if they are, the numbers could be found to be false or incorrect.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/29/biometric_passport_heist/
The driver’s name was Hussein.
“Sounds like the driver was the inside man on this job.”
I have no doubt he’s going through some rather uncomfortable questioning at the moment...
What kind of chocolate bar was it?
Exactly my thought.
Bingo
Absolutely.
I’d give anything for a real British Cadbury bar right now, maybe even 3000 passports.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.