Two south London crooks have been sentenced after supplying fraudulent passports to some of the UK’s most wanted fugitives.
Anthony Beard, 61, and Christopher Zietek, 67, both of Sydenham, were handed jail time of six and eight years respectively.
The court heard how Beard would find people who looked similar to his clients and buy their expired passports from them.
Beard would then use their details and passports to apply for new versions but with photographs of his clients.
Zietek, formerly known as Christopher McCormack acted as a broker, using his criminal connections to find clients.
Customers paid between £5,000 and £20,000 to get their hands on the “golden ticket” documents.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said clients included “Glasgow murderers Jordan Owen and Christopher Hughes, Liverpool drug trafficker Michael Moogan – who was jailed for twelve years on March 17 – Manchester fugitive David Walley, and suspected Scottish drug traffickers Barrie Gillespie, Jamie Stevenson and James White”.
A third member of the gang, Alan Thompson, 72, from Surrey, was a broker who chauffeured Zietek to criminal meetings and was sentenced to three years.
The trio were sentenced at Reading Crown Court on May 16.
NCA Deputy Director Craig Turner said: “The fraudulent passports this crime group supplied were seen as golden tickets by criminals, as they allowed them to operate internationally under false identities and pose a sustained threat to the public.
“The investigation demonstrates the NCA’s unique role in tackling the most serious and complex crime threats facing the UK. We have dismantled a crime group that enabled drug and firearm traffickers, murderers and fugitives to evade justice.
“We worked across international borders to bring the masterminds to account, and we will continue to protect the UK from criminals who present a threat to our security, people and economy.”
Read the full story of how the trio were convicted here:
South London ‘crime bosses’ convicted of supplying fraudulent passports to the criminal underworld