Man flies home using his friend’s passport

AIRPORT CHECKS FAIL TO PICK UP ERROR ON RETURN TO UK

A MAN has flown from Prague to the UK on the wrong passport after accidentally taking his friend’s and leaving him stranded in the Czech capital.

Allan Poole, 43, from Whitley Bay, travelled from Prague to Newcastle via Amsterdam on a KLM flight.

The passport was checked or scanned at least four times during the journey but the mistake was never flagged.

Border control agents who checked his passport when leaving the Schengen area at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, and UK immigration officials who checked it when he arrived home did not identify the mistake.

KLM staff at the boarding gate in Amsterdam also did not notice the name on his boarding card did not match the passport.

Mr Poole’s friend, Steve Vincent, 43, also from Whitley Bay, is now stranded in Prague until the British Embassy provide him with an emergency passport.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Prague said it was not unusual for people to travel on other people’s passports.

“People do travel on (the wrong passport), they don’t get checked when they come out and stuff like that,” the spokesman said. “It’s quite common actually, to be honest with you, people do travel on other people’s passports accidentally, it does happen.

“Border controls sometimes don’t look, I don’t know for what reason.”

A spokesman for the Home Office said: “Border Force officers are rigorously trained to prevent those using fraudulent documents from entering the country.

“Our officers are also involved in the training of airline staff and immigration officers overseas to spot false documents to stop people from even beginning their journey to the UK.”

Mr Poole said no one noticed he was travelling on the wrong passport and he only realised himself when he got back to the UK.

Speaking to The Independent, he said: “I even failed the e-passport gate in Amsterdam and went to a booth and was waved through. At Newcastle control they looked at the passport and waved me through.”

The pair were on a weekend trip when they accidentally swapped passports while checking into their hotel.

The British Embassy spokesman said it would assist Mr Vincent as he would not be able to return to the UK without an emergency travel document.