Pair flew away using wrong passports (From Oxford Mail)

Pair flew away using wrong passports

11:00am Tuesday 27th July 2010 in

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A GRANDMOTHER was left shocked after she manage to travel 3,500 miles to Turkey and back – using someone else’s passport.

Lesley Needham booked the package holiday with friend Sheila Hudson after they both fancied some summer sun.

The pair checked in at Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal on the morning of Monday, July 5, but accidentally used each other’s passport when they went through passport control.

Surprised at the security slip-up, they decided to see how far they could get using the wrong documents.

Seven days later they returned, and both sailed through passport control at the London airport – still clutching the wrong passports.

Security in Turkey had also failed to spot a problem.

Last night, the Home Office said it was working to make UK borders more secure.

Mrs Needham, 54, a former cleaner, said: “It makes me annoyed because they are meant to be careful who comes and goes, and there are people coming into this country illegally. If it is easy for me and Sheila to do, it must be easy for anyone to do.

“It makes you wonder how many people are in this country who shouldn’t be here. These people should be doing their jobs properly. That’s what they are paid for.”

The pair were holidaying in Alanya, on the country’s Mediterranean coast, and landed at Antalya airport.

Mrs Needham, a mother-of-three from Ock Street in Abingdon, said they both had blonde hair, but hers was long, while her friend Sheila’s was short.

She said: “When we got to Gatwick we thought we would be caught. We spoke to an official and he didn’t seem very concerned.

“He said the girls were busy on the desks.

“It started off as an accident, but we got all the way there and all the way back. I could not believe it.

“They take so much care checking you in and making sure you haven’t got anything you shouldn’t in your bags, because of terrorism, but we got through with the wrong passports – without a problem.

“The woman at Gatwick on the way home didn’t even look at me to see if I was the person in the passport picture.”

Mother-of-one Ms Hudson, an administrator at the Culham science park, said: “I was shocked; I could not believe it. It was scary that the official just laughed it off.”

Home Office spokesman Jamie Hamill said: “We are determined to make the UK border more secure.

“That is why the new Government will set up a Border Police Force and will ensure that every individual who enters the UK will have their details checked against watch lists.”