3,000 new e-passports stolen

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Some 3,000 of the new e-passports featuring chip technology have been stolen, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has confirmed.

The blank passport and visa documents were stolen from a hijacked van at about 6:30am this morning during transport from their production facility in Manchester to an RAF base. According to a report in the BBC, the van driver was stopped assaulted and his van hijacked after he stopped to pick up a newspaper. The van and the driver were left on an unmarked road, but boxes containing passports were missing.

The documents were to head overseas to be used for foreign applications, an FCS spokeswoman told IT PRO.

The documents held no personal details, but could clearly be used for creating bogus passports. The FCO stressed that both the passports and visas “contain security features designed to prevent misuse.”

That claim has been disputed, and e-passports will still be accepted at the border if the chip is not functioning.

The new e-passports are part of the government’s identity scheme, which will see biometric data held on the documents and will also see the introduction of an identity card.

Last year, the Home Office admitted that 10,000 bogus passports had been fraudulently obtained by criminals.

Manchester police are investigating the theft, and the government is reviewing security procedures. The Home Office and Identity and Passport Service have circulated the documents’ numbers to all issuing authorities, which have been made aware of the theft.

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