Master of Ceremonies Judith Edmonds welcomed everyone to
the Pattaya City Expat Club’s regular Sunday meeting on July 11, and, after
the usual opening announcements, she called on the guest speaker Tony
Martin.
MC Judith Edmonds introduces Tony Martin, former Chief
Immigration Officer for the UK Immigration Service.
It did not take Tony long before he had everyone reaching
for their wallets and pocketbooks to take out their cash. No, he wasn’t
selling anything nor asking for donations; as he was going to discuss the
security features to be found in Thai banknotes, he suggested that everyone
take out a banknote to follow along.
Tony started by briefly describing his career. Tony spent
40 years working for the UK Immigration Service (now the UK Border Agency).
Early in his career, he was an immigration officer and chief immigration
officer at Heathrow and Gatwick airports. He also had three stints working
as a visa officer; once in Kuala Lumpur and twice in New Delhi. Since 1999,
he worked in various locations, including Ghana, Nigeria, Bahrain, Libya,
United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Pakistan. He recently retired from UK
Border Agency and now lives and works in Thailand.
He noted that in the past many arrivals to the UK were
able to use counterfeit or fraudulent documents because airlines were not
taking responsibility for those they allowed to board their aircraft. As a
result, the Carrier Liability Act (1987) was passed, which provided for a
1,000 pound penalty against the airline for passengers arriving in the UK
without proper documentation. He said the penalty is now 2,000 pounds
(1991).
Tony Martin, former chief immigration officer for the UK
Immigration Service, describes the many security features of banknotes used
now - and how to avoid being taken with money not worth the paper it is
photocopied on.
The airlines protested that they did not have the
expertise to identify counterfeit or fraudulent documentation. As a result,
the UK sent Immigration Officers to various locations to train airline
staff. However, they were spending all year conducting training because of
the constant turnover in airline personnel. As a result, the UK decided to
place immigration officers outside the UK to review passenger documentation
before they boarded airlines. Tony said his last 10 years before retiring
were spent performing these duties.
After that brief introduction, Tony said he would first
discuss security features for banknotes as they are similar to the security
features of passports. He then presented slides showing several features
that one will normally find in banknotes including Thai currency. It was an
interesting presentation as he described paper, inks, and the different
types of printing used for different features appearing on the same note.
Other features are holograms and security threads. The processes, being very
expensive, make it unlikely that a counterfeiter would reproduce them.
Since similar features are incorporated into many
passports and visas, it also makes them difficult to forge and easier to
detect by the trained eye. Although stolen passport blanks will have many of
the features, they will not have features that are put on the passport at
time of issue, which then must be forged. Also required would be the
altering of the passport number since these numbers are widely disseminated
when blanks are stolen. But, in most cases, Tony said the traveler is not
using a forged passport. Instead, they are using someone else’s legitimate
passport. In doing so, they try to make their appearance similar to the
photograph in the passport they are using. Tony mentioned that detection in
these cases can be difficult, especially for an untrained person.
He then displayed many pictures side by side (the
passport photo and photo of the traveler) and asked the audience to
determine if they were the same person. After the initial guessing, he would
then reveal whether they were the same person or not. In doing so, he
pointed out certain features that the trained person looks for.
He also said that most people when looking at someone
focus on the “triangle of recognition” - eyes, nose, and mouth without
really seeing the differences. Consequently, the trained person turns the
picture upside down so that you no longer have that “triangle” that your
brain looks for. He then pointed out that doing this can often reveal
differences between the passenger and the picture; for example the distance
between nose and lips or the difference in the shape of chin, lips,
nostrils, and ears.
Another interesting fact mentioned by Tony was that often
the primary intent in using fraudulent documents is to get on the aircraft.
After takeoff, they often destroy the documents; thus presenting a problem
in the UK, since they have no identification to show nationality.
Consequently, they can claim to be from somewhere else in an attempt to get
asylum. Although his and other immigration officers’ efforts reduced the
number of fraudulent arrivals, they could only stem the tide.
Tony concluded his presentation and elicited a lot of
laughter by showing pictures of fantasy passports; many available through
the Internet. He said that people actually try to use these fantasy
passports, such as from: The Kingdom of Atlantis, or Empire State of
Sabotage, or World Government of World Citizens.
Needless to say, there were many questions from the
audience about this very interesting topic.
Judith then updated everyone on upcoming events and
called on Hawaii Bob Sutterfield to conduct the Open Forum; always
informative and often humorous where questions about living in Thailand and
Pattaya in particular are asked and answered.
