Convicted sex offender travels world for 17 years on false passport in brother’s name

Convicted criminal James McLeod Bennett was sentenced to 12 months of home detention in the Hāwera District Court on Friday after obtaining and using a British passport in his brother's name for 17 years. Photo / NZME

James McLeod Bennett knew his extensive criminal history could derail his desire for international travel so he used his brother’s name to fraudulently secure a genuine foreign passport.

Bennett, who was born in New Zealand, was convicted of rape and abduction in 1996 and sentenced to 9.5 years imprisonment. In total, he had 34 convictions in New Zealand between 1976 and 2016 including seven for sex offences, two for stupifying his victims, and 21 for dishonesty.

The 66-year-old has a younger brother, William Lindsay Bennett, and had previously lived in the United Kingdom and Australia where he also had criminal records.

Bennett appeared before Judge Gregory Hikaka in the Hāwera District Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to three representative charges of falsely presenting a passport as relating to him, knowing it was in his brother’s name, during 10 international trips, which each carry a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $100,000.

He had also previously admitted two charges of dishonestly and without claim of right using the false passport with the intent of obtaining a valuable consideration, in regard to obtaining the driver’s licence and bank account, which also have a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment [MBIE] summary of facts detailed how in July 2003, Bennett obtained a Great British passport in his brother’s name after supplying his sibling’s details in the application but using a photograph of himself.

He used the same ruse to apply for and gain a New Zealand driver’s licence and then presented it, along with the bogus passport, as proof of identification to open a bank account with ASB in William’s name.

In November 2004, Bennett submitted the sham travel document to Immigration New Zealand in a Returning Resident Visa application which was approved and the visa was placed into the passport.

The documentation was used by Bennett to pass himself off as his brother to border officials, during a return trip to Fiji in May 2006 and then to Australia in 2012.

Bennett repeated the ruse in January 2017 to get issued a second British passport, in William’s name but with his photo, before making a Permanent Residence Visa transfer application to Immigration NZ which was again approved.

The phoney passport was used on a return trip to Kuala Lumpur in 2017 and to travel to Beijing in China, in June 2018 before returning to New Zealand from Bangkok, Thailand, in August.

Using the dodgy documents, Bennett could freely travel in and out of New Zealand while the visa allowed him to remain in the country indefinitely.

While Bennett’s international travel was unrestricted, his last overseas jaunt was to Adelaide in March this year.

When challenged by immigration officials, Bennett admitted the facts and claimed his brother was aware he was using his identity to secure the sham documents by giving him his British passport and Australian driver’s licence so he had the correct details.

“He stated that he obtained passport number... in the identity of William Lindsay Bennett to travel overseas without being impacted by his extensive criminal history in New Zealand, Australia, and Great Britain.”

Prosecution lawyer Ian Murray, appearing for MBIE, said obtaining the British passport allowed Bennett the privilege to travel which he shouldn’t have had.

Murray described the offending as sophisticated and persistent.

Judge Hikaka told Bennett his offending had undermined New Zealand’s integrity and reputation worldwide.

He said the countries Bennett travelled to had every right to be concerned by the extent and type of convictions he had.

“This fraud has undermined the country’s standing in the eyes of others,” Judge Hikaka said.

“You treated this fraud as an opportunity to travel internationally without restrictions.”

He acknowledged submissions from Bennett’s defence lawyer Neal Harding which detailed some of the travel was to visit family and support his wife when her mother and a close friend died weeks apart.

Bennett’s fraudulent offending spanned 17 years and involved a high degree of premeditation.

Judge Hikaka said there were background issues and Bennett had a difficult childhood which led to him getting involved with anti-social elements in the United Kingdom before moving to Australia. He was deported back to New Zealand at 29 because of the convictions he had accumulated.

The judge began with a starting point of three years’ imprisonment but reduced it to 27 months for Bennett’s guilty pleas.

Judge Hikaka acknowledged this was still outside of the range he could impose an electronically monitored sentence and reduced it by a further three months to 24 months out of mercy for Bennett’s age.

The sentence was then reduced to 12 months’ home detention but it came with a stern warning.

“If there is any breach of that sentence, the default position would be a prison sentence that I think your offending warrants and deserves.”

Leighton Keith joined NZME as an Open Justice reporter based in Whanganui in 2022. He’s been a journalist for 20 years covering a variety of topics and rounds.