Trio sentenced in Reading over criminal passport ring
Customers paid between £5,000 and £15,000 for the highly sought after documents
Last updated 16th May 2023
Three men who were part of an operation to supply fraudulent passports enabling murderers and drug traffickers to evade justice in the UK and cross international borders have been sentenced at Reading Crown Court.
Anthony Beard, 61, from Sydenham in south east London is thought to have successfully applied for more than 100 of the travel documents over more than a decade.
He was jailed on Tuesday for six years and eight months after admitting conspiracy to make a false instrument with intent and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Beard recruited donors to sell him their expired passports, and then applied for renewals using their details but a criminal's photo.
He supplied passports to suspected members of a Glasgow crime gang through Christopher Zietek, 67, of Sydenham and Spain, and Zietek's right hand man Alan Thompson, 72, from Sutton in Surrey.
Zietek was sentenced to eight years for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to make a false instrument with intent and converting criminal property, while Thompson was jailed for three years for the same charges.
Deputy Circuit Judge Nicholas Ainley said of the scheme: "It was to enable very wicked, sophisticated, violent criminals to escape justice by providing them with documents that because they were genuine would deceive the authorities to enable them to escape."
Customers paid between £5,000 and £15,000 for the highly sought after documents, which were issued authentically but applied for using false information.
They allowed them to operate abroad and carry on conducting criminality affecting the UK.
After the NCA established the false identities offenders were using, many fugitives have now been caught all over the world following joint working with UK police forces and international partners.
Among the recipients were Glasgow murderers Jordan Owen and Christopher Hughes, Liverpool drug trafficker Michael Moogan – who was jailed for 12 years today – Manchester fugitive David Walley, and suspected Scottish drug traffickers Barrie Gillespie, Jamie Stevenson and James White.
Anthony Beard, 61, and Christopher Zietek, 67, were caught after a covert surveillance operation by the National Crime Agency found they provided fraudulently-obtained genuine passports (FOGs) to organised criminals over a five-year period.
Between them charges were brought for offences of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to make a false instrument with intent (passports and ID documents), and money laundering.
Beard changed his plea to guilty on 3 January 2023, the first day of a nine-week trial at Reading Crown Court, during which Zietek was found guilty.
Another member of the crime group, Alan Thompson, 72, from Sutton, Surrey, was also found guilty.
He worked for Zietek doing everything from chauffeuring him to criminal meetings to performing necessary tasks for the brokering of FOG passports, including meeting Beard when Zietek was abroad.
A FOG passport and several photographs of FOG customers were located at his home.
NCA Deputy Director Craig Turner said: “This organised crime group supplied fraudulent passports that enabled some of the UK’s most serious and dangerous criminals to operate internationally under false identities and pose a sustained threat to the public.
“The investigation demonstrates the NCA’s unique role in tackling the most serious and complex crime threats facing the UK. We have identified a chronic, under the radar conspiracy that enabled drug and firearm traffickers, murderers and fugitives to evade justice, and we have worked across borders to dismantle it and the bring the masterminds to account.
“The NCA continues to protect the UK from the serious and organised criminals who present a threat to our security, people and economy.”