When you think of serious crimes that don’t involve injuring or murdering another person, fraud will likely feature high on the list of offences that pop into your mind.
It’s basically a sophisticated form of lying, and serious fraud can obviously cause serious harm.
Think of, if you will, people who have been scammed out of their life savings or people who have had their identities stolen.
When one commits an act of fraud, like obtaining or using a false passport for example, it’s a serious criminal offence. If I did it, I’d expect to be severely reprimanded.
One of the chief reasons we even have passports is so that the authorities in other countries we want to visit or move to have an idea of who we are and are able to make an initial assessment of whether we are a risk to their national security or not.
Using or being in possession of fake passports certainly sounds like a big deal.
You could be forgiven for thinking it’s not a huge deal after all if you look at the following recent cases.
https://twitter.com/courtsnewsIRL/status/1854965776907968783This week an African man who was discovered with not one, not two, but three fake passports was lucky enough to avoid any real punishment when he received a suspended sentence.
The Sunday World reported that 51-year-old Deji Oshinowoof who has an address at Myrtle Square, Baldoyle Dublin 13 was found to have two fake passports from the Republic of Benin and one from South Africa.
None of the false passports had his photo on them.
Oshinwoof came to Ireland over 18 years ago and sought asylum however his application has been delayed because of his brushes with the law.
The court heard he has seven previous convictions, two of which involve custody of false instruments.
It was also reported that his progress toward citizenship has been “paused”.
It’s rather difficult to imagine a country that takes itself seriously merely ‘pausing’ the pathway towards citizenship of a repeat offender like Oshinowoof.
Be that as it may.
Regular readers will be aware that last month a former Turkish prosecutor who came to Ireland on a fake German passport was allowed to walk free from the courts after being arrested by members of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).
Sadullah Ovacikli (44) was released from Cloverhill Prison, Dublin on the first of October last after officers from the GNIB charged him with offences contrary to section 11 of the Immigration act after he came to Ireland on the 11th of September last using a fake German passport in the name “Felix Christian Muller”.
Ovacikli – who was involved in a case against a well known dissident journalist in Turkey -was allowed to walk free from the prison in order to pursue his asylum application.
While this writer understands the argument that people seeking asylum may not have access to legitimate travel documentation, this does not mean that obtaining or possessing false passports is any less illegal.
Ovacikli, who through his barrister complained about the kind of prisoners he was surrounded with at Cloverhill Prison, is far from the only person to come to Ireland on false papers to claim asylum.
As Dr. Matt Treacy previously reported, 5,000 people who came to Ireland with either no or false documents claimed asylum in 2022.
The Department of Justice – the same one that does not conduct exit checks on persons issued with deportation orders – said that these individuals were “initially refused [permission] to disembark but then went on to claim asylum. Almost 70% of the total were male – amounting to 3,506 applicants, while 1,568 or some 30% were female.
In September this year it was reported that 220 people who arrived in Ireland without a passport or having failed to produce one when asked.
Head of operation with the Border Management Unit (BMU) Chris O’Donoghue, said that people who board flights to Ireland with fake passports are told by traffickers to destroy them on arrival.
You’d think a justice system that wanted to, you know, deter people from using fake passports to travel to Ireland or send a strong message to human traffickers might punish the offence accordingly.
The Irish justice system however seems to be happy enough to tolerate bad behaviour.