LONDON, March 20 (UPI) -- The British Home Office admits that each year it has issued some 10,000 fraudulent passports, including nine to a man since convicted of terrorism. Dhiren Barot, who was arrested in 2004, obtained seven passports in his own name and two under aliases, The Evening Standard reported. He obtained the duplicates by claiming he had lost his passport.I'm actually in the process of looking for a new job right now. If they were to offer me lots of money I'd be happy to build them a system that would spot that sort of nonsense. It might take me a day or two, of course, but it's not real hard.
Barot, a member of al-Qaida, is serving a 40-year prison sentence for planning a "dirty-bomb" attack and attacks with parked cars loaded with gas cylinders.
Salaheddine Benyaich, a Moroccan national convicted of involvement in a lethal series of bombings in Casablanca, got two passports by using someone else's identity, the newspaper said.
The Home Office report told The Evening Standard that in recent years about 16,500 fraudulent passport applications have been made each year with one-third of the applicants caught. The department plans a new system for those applying for a passport for the first time. They will have to go through a 20-minute interview in which they will be asked about places where they have lived, relatives, credit history and other checkable information.