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.
"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.
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.