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Hijackers steal blank British passports worth £2.5m as driver stops to buy a chocolate bar
Last updated at 01:23am on 30.07.08
Raid: Hijackers stole thousands of British passports and visas when a delivery driver nipped off to buy some chocolate
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.
The offenders sped off with the vehicle. Police said the haul has a criminal value of £2.5million.
Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, who has advised Gordon Brown on national security, said the best case scenario was that the documents would be used for identity fraud.
But he warned that if they fell into the hands of terrorists and other international criminals, they would yield a host of technological secrets and allow fraudsters to produce their own versions.
The raid took place less than a mile from the 3M factory in Oldham where the passports were produced
Mr Mercer told the Daily Mail: 'We have handed a real coup to the terrorists. They must be laughing themselves silly over this.'
Industry specialist Steve Beecroft said forgers could print the passports for use as proof of identity for banks.
He added: 'From that one document you could literally create your own identity as a foreign national who last month got a British passport.'
Mr Beecroft, a technology consultant who has worked with the Home Office on its proposed ID card scheme, said the stolen documents could be sold to asylum seekers who want to pass themselves off as UK citizens.
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, standing in for Gordon Brown, said the robbery was a 'serious crime'.
However, she claimed it did not necessarily show a 'sloppy attitude'. Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'This latest security failure is all the more shocking, given the Government's inability to learn the lessons from the HMRC fiasco and a string of other government failures to secure confidential documents and personal information.'
A spokesman for the Foreign office said its non-armoured security vans had been used for 15 years 'without incident'.
The hijacked van had extra locks fitted but they were rendered useless as the robbers simply took advantage of the unlocked doors, with the keys inside the vehicle.
A spokesman for 3M Security Printing & Systems, the private firm contracted to transport the passports, said there were no personal details on the stolen documents.
'Both the passports and visa documents contain security features to prevent misuse and the Home Office has taken steps to stop use of the documents,' the spokesman added.
The Identity and Passport Service said its hi-tech embedded chip security features made the passports 'unusable'.
Reader views (18)
'real coup to terrorists, illegal immigrants and fraudsters'
Has not having a passport stopped them before? If we only had to worry about 3000 illegal entries in this country we'd be laughing.
'private firm contracted to....'
How many times have we heard that.
- Steve, London
It's private enterprise, isn't it? If the passport office is going to be so slow giving people new passports, then a competitor will set up and provide customers with an improved service.
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark
Ah, the ship of fools sails onward towards the waterfall.
- Dave, Nova Scotia C anada
3 thousand passports at £1m each... Mandy could have fixed our balance of payment problems if he hadn't been shipped off to run the bra-wars.
- Dave, Cornwall
Not really significant when you consider our porous boarders, immigrant amnesties, willingness to hold on to foreign criminals to protect their “rights” and the ease with which people can obtain forged documentation.
- Steve, Hereford
How could these documents contain no data? If they came from the 3M secure printing site, they must have printed something on them? Also - how could they be intended for overseas embassies if they were blank - how could details be 'put on them' in far away embassies? The whole thing stinks - just another example of outsourcing on the cheap producing massive inefficiencies.
- Gary, wycombe
"claimed the passports would be unusable due to computer chip embedded into the document."
Oh good, so they won't be able to be used for opening bank accounts or committing any kind of identity fraud then?
"Have you got any photographic ID before I allow you to withdraw £10,000 from your account sir"
"Certainly, will a passport do?"
Still, on the upside, I guess that the rut that Gordon's driven the economy into currently will mean that there's less to steal from people's accounts.
- Ben Nicked, London
something else for NuLab to draw a line under and move on?
Why did driver monkeyboy need to stop and get a paper? Did his mates not want to knock him about as they thieved the loot?
- Aesir, Londonistan
Exactly what I would have expected from the Brown Government. It never fails to meet expectations!
- Phil Jones, London UK
Bit odd this, he pulled up outside a news agents and they robbed the truck, sounds like an inside job, question the driver.
- Brandon Thomas, London SW7
Maybe they should have stuck Amy Winehouse in with the passports. They would have had plenty of police protection then eh!?
- Vivien, London
Yet another slow hand clap round of applause to NuLabour. Just when you think the blunders can't possibly get any worse, they pull another out of the bag.
- Bill, EU
That poor dude was either in on the job or must feel well guilty, either way it will probably just be twisted into an argument on pro ID cards. What has this country come to?
- Kaspa Starr, Acton london
Probably a set up job. Stopped for a bar of chocolate and a paper indeed.
- Squiz, Islington
Every day some new disaster befalls this Govt. Why aren't such consignments protected properly? They must be among the most valuable documents in Britain in the wrong hands. 3000 potential terrorist-bent illegal immigrants and their families. Oh joy.
- Squiz, Islington
Why bother? You don't need a passport to get into NuLabour Britain, or to live a life of luxury at the taxpayer's expense.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
Presumably these passports were locked in a strong metal security box, with smartwater anti-theft device, which was welded to the floor of the unmarked locked van. The van was obviously fitted with the latest Tracker, so Police could identify where it was, and the driver was PV security cleared. Hold on though....this is probably a New Labour outsourced contract, so the van was probably a hired vehicle, with no security whatsoever, driven by an agency driver, who has not been security cleared. Of course, lessons will be learned, no individual will be responsible, the passports are totally unusable...blah,blah,blah...ineptitude, incompetence and worrying stupidity along the lines of the missing ChildTax Credit records fiasco.
- Gary, wycombe
So, let me get this right. It will make them 'unusable' only at airports which have hi-tech passport readers and usable for obtaining credit and other ID from places that don't have a hi-tech reader system to compliment the chip.
The home office must think we are utterly stupid. Imagine if this was a consignment of ID cards!
- Andy, London
