The man wiped the customs with fake passports for years

Dane Antony Moule, who has criminal record, says she did this because she knew she would not have permission to Australia, where NZME understands that it has family members nearby.

According to the police police summary, which does not specify Moule’s criminal history, he asked an associate to complete the first of two false passport requests in May 2015.

New Zealand’s passport was prosecuted and issued by the Department of Internal Affairs on behalf of its member, with Moule’s photograph, he heard Nelson’s District Court yesterday.

The following month, Moule traveled from Auckland to the gold coast, cleaning the customs with the passport, knowing it was fake.

Moule used the same passport to return to New Zealand, reaching Christchurs a few weeks later.

He reserved another trip to Australia in January 2016, using the same fake passport to travel from Auckland to Brisbane, returning eight days later.

Then there was a hiatus on Moule’s trips until February 2018, when he traveled to Fiji, using a different fake passport.

In 2016, he acquired a second fake passport, using the same associate to complete the app on his behalf, but again using Moule’s photo.

On February 16, 2018, Moule took off to Nadi, having released the customs using his forged passport before traveling back to Auckland nine days later.

NZME understands that Moule was eventually caught for facial recognition technology used in passports.

On the border, the New Zealand customs use egates to match the image of someone’s face on their epassport with the photo that takes from them in the gate.

The Department of Internal Affairs began issuing New Zealand biometric passports in 2005, but dozens of fake passports were discovered during safety checks before a new On -Line passport renewal system was introduced in late 2012.

In court yesterday, Moule, now 61, admitted two representative accusations made under the passport law for false representations and using forged and fake travel documents from New Zealand.

Moule’s guilt requests followed an amendment to what was initially eight separate accusations.

One of the representative accusations carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and the other, five years.

He was arrested under bail before his sentence in July.

In 2023, three people were convicted at the Whanganui District Court for their part of a sophisticated forgery ring that placed false identity documents, including United Nations diplomatic passports, in the hands of international criminals.

False passports, driver licenses and official government identification cards, as well as United Nations identification cards and diplomatic passports, were detected at borders abroad, causing an investigation by NZ Alfândega.

The charges resulted from a customs investigation, the code name Operation Eldorado, which began in November 2019 in response to information received from the execution agencies abroad, including the US internal security department, on fake identity documents being sold and exported from New Zealand.

– Tracy Neal, Open Justice Reporter