Revealed: huge rise in ID theft CRIME: FRAUD INCREASING CRIME: FRAUD

A SUNDAY Herald investigation into identity theft has exposed Russian mafia gangs selling fake passports wholesale on the streets of Britain, revealed how easy it is to buy identity documents for leading Scottish politicians and dead children in order to clone their identities, and uncovered just how extensively Britain is in the grip of this burgeoning criminal phenomenon.

CIFAS, the UK's Fraud Protection Service, unveiled new statistics to the Sunday Herald as part of the investigation, showing that more than 135,000 people were the victims of ID theft in the UK last year. The previous year's figures were 120,000. Back in 1997, there were just 20,000 ID theft cases a year. The latest government figures show that about 8000 forged passports and ID documents are uncovered each year. ID theft costs the UK pounds-1.3 billion a year.

The newspaper was also able to buy the birth certificate of Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell, as well as the birth certificates of dead children, from the births, deaths and marriages registry even though rules are supposed to be in place to limit access to such documents to prevent potential ID thieves "tombstoning".

Tombstoning sees a criminal assuming the ID of a dead child using a birth certificate. Some 30-per cent of all UK identity theft cases involve tombstoning. Britain's leading ID theft expert Robert Hamadi, who advises the government on the crime, said: "People attribute much more security to birth certificates than there actually is. It is a great 'breeder' document which allows you to start acquiring other forms of ID."

A birth certificate, he said, enabled a criminal to "easily" get hold of a photographic driver's licence. With those, an ID thief can open a bank account, order credit cards and loans in his victim's name and ruin them financially.

Hamadi said the UK needs to consider demanding ID from anyone wishing to buy birth certificates from the public registry.

The UK Passport Service says it now wants to link its computer network to the Office of National Statistics to crosscheck applications for passports against the deaths register to stamp out tombstoning. And the Home Office wants to pass a law covering "the possession or control of false identity documents", which will target people buying and using another person's birth certificate.

Detective Chief Superintendent Stephen Ward of the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency, which tackles serious and organised crime, said: "This is an issue that has to be better controlled. It offers law enforcement an additional challenge in dealing with ID theft and organised crime."

The Sunday Herald has also exposed a Russian mafia racket selling identity documents, including passports, from new European Union member state countries including the Czech Republic and Lithuania.

Using contacts in the Lithuanian passport service, the gangsters are cloning documents that passport experts in the UK say are "the very best" they've ever seen. Police say that such papers are "gold dust" for criminals.

A passport allows ID thieves to open bank accounts and apply for credit cards and mortgages. These can be used by criminals and terrorists to launder money, commit widespread ID fraud and evade the police.

The Russian mafia gang sold the passports to our undercover reporters for just over pounds-1000, believing them to be members of an Irish terrorist group. Bulk sales see the price cut to pounds- 800.

Police praised the Sunday Herald's investigation for "showing the reality of what is happening on the ground".

Identity theft: page 37

Copyright 2006 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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