British tourist, 43, flies from Prague to Newcastle using his friend’s PASSPORT – and no one notices
The passport Allan Poole mistakenly used to fly home from Prague was checked at least four times by officials but no one realised it really belonged to his friend
A BRIT managed to fly from Prague to Newcastle using his friend’s passport and no one even noticed.
Allan Poole, 43, flew from the Czech capital to the UK via Amsterdam with KLM on his mate’s passport and the airline and airport authorities never realised.
Allan, from Whitely Bay, accidentally picked up Steve Vincent’s passport which was checked or scanned at least four times during his trip home despite the names having no resemblance.
KLM staff at the boarding gate didn’t notice anything was wrong and neither did border security in Amsterdam or Newcastle.
Steve, 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."
"It even happens in the UK, people come out on perhaps a child's passport that's sometimes not checked, 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.
'YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE LET HIM ON THE PLANE'
"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.
"Between April 2010 and December 2018 more than 159,000 people were refused entry to the UK, including those refused for travelling on invalid documentation."
Steve tweeted KLM airlines asking what they are going to do about the issue after they let Allan travel on his passport.
He said: "Hey KLM you let my friend travel from Prague to Newcastle on my passport (after we swapped by mistake).
"You shouldn't have let him on the plane. I'm trapped in Prague. What are you going to do about it?"
Allan 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 , 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 to the city when they accidentally swapped their passports while checking into their accommodation.
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Steve said in a tweet: "We were sober when we accidentally swapped. Just arrived, had to fill out a form with passport details, left both on the table and one of us picked up the wrong one."
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.
It normally takes two working days to process and costs £100, they added.
