Immigration loses 40 passports

More than 40 passports were stolen from an Immigration Service branch and remain missing, despite inquiries by private investigators and police.

Although one former contractor was considered a suspect, there have been no arrests either and the service has closed the case.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the matter raised serious questions about the service's reliability.

"The clear thing this indicates is how lax the Immigration Service was about its responsibilities," said Mr Peters.

But the Department of Labour, which the service is part of, defended the handling of the thefts.

"We took this extremely seriously, responded quickly and thoroughly, and have taken steps to prevent disappearance of passports occurring again," said the department's deputy secretary Mary Anne Thompson.

The Weekend Herald revealed last year that British man Rai Davies had been told his passport had been stolen after he sent it to the Auckland Central branch so conditions on his visa could be changed.

Mr Davies said he was concerned about where the document had gone, fearing that "it could have ... ended up in the hands of terrorists".

Documents obtained under the Official Information Act show Mr Davies was one of 44 people whose passports and application fees vanished during a period of several weeks in February last year.

The passports were from China, South Korea, Hong Kong, South Africa, Cambodia, Russia, Malaysia and Britain.

An initial internal investigation report said that on February 27, several clients contacted the service asking about progress on their visa applications. There were no records of them having made applications.

"By the end of the day, it was apparent we had a problem," said the report, which made it clear the service was relying on applicants alerting them to the problem.

The report, dated March 11, found that the passports had most likely been stolen after they had been picked up from boxes where clients dropped off their applications.

Weaknesses in systems and infrastructure allowed the potential for theft, it said.

At the end of March, an email sent to a senior manager called for an outside agency to become involved.

"Our focus so far has been to deal with the individual cases in terms of tidying them up and damage limitation," said the email. "We have carried out the preliminary investigation and there is not much more I can do on my own."

Private investigators ICIL Group were hired.

The company's director, Wayne Chester, agreed that there were concerns. "The security of the sorting area is badly lacking," he wrote in an email.

Police were finally called in on April 27 after ICIL investigators had identified a former contractor employed by the service as a suspect. Investigators referred to her as "the gambler". They believed her motive was money.

Police executed a search warrant at her house but found nothing.

Detective Sergeant Hayden Mander, who handled the file, said last week that there had been no arrests and the passports had not been found. He agreed that money was the most likely motivation.

Asked if it was a security concern that the passports had not been recovered, he said: "Who knows what's happened to them?"

Mr Peters said it was a disgrace the police were not alerted for two months. "It suggests they [the service] were in some kind of cover-up mode hoping that something would eventuate without bringing in the authorities. That is just grossly irresponsible."

He said it was also unbelievable that the service had no way of knowing the passports were missing until the applicants came forward.

The first thing any Government service should do was log receipt of an application.

Ms Thompson defended the time it took to call in the police, saying the service had hired a private investigator when it became apparent the applications could have been stolen.

"We put an alert on the passports, which would bring them to our attention if people tried to present them, and none have surfaced," she said.

The passports may be capable of being used overseas, however.

Immigration Minister Paul Swain said the loss of the passports was unacceptable. "The department has acknowledged its security was inadequate at the time the passports disappeared," said Mr Swain.

"The department has assured me that it has put in place all practicable steps to prevent a recurrence."

Better security

* Passports had most likely been stolen when forwarded with applications.

* Staff members now work under security cameras and contractors are not used for the work.