A man who obtained a false passport using the identity of a dead child was jailed for four years and nine months yesterday.
A man who obtained a false passport using the identity of a dead child was jailed for four years and nine months yesterday.
The High Court in Glasgow heard Gerald Duffy used the method outlined in Fredrick Forsyth's bestseller The Day of the Jackal to get the travel document.
He applied for the passport using the birth certificate of Andrew Lappin who died in road accident in 1972, aged three, and then used it to open a bank account.
Jailing Duffy, 39, the judge, Lord Turnbull, told him: "You obtained a passport by false pretences and this offence was further aggravated by the use to which that passport was used.
"You opened a bank account in a false name and then used it to pay for flights abroad and overseas hotels where you would have used the false passport.
"I consider there was a sinister and sophisticated aspect to all of this. The insult to the family of Andrew Lappin and the upset it caused them is obvious. The letter I received from his mother is eloquent of that."
Lord Turnbull said that despite being repeatedly asked to give details of his bank transactions Duffy had consistently refused to do so.
He added: "The obvious inference is that you obtained the passport and the bank account to perpetrate further criminal or nefarious purposes.
I'm satisfied these are the correct inferences. You have a criminal record in relation to offences of dishonesty.
In a letter to the judge, Andrew's mother, Florence Lappin, told of how much- loved Andrew was and how devastated the family had been by his death.
After being shown the letter in court, Duffy said: "I'm deeply ashamed of the anguish I've caused the Lappins. They have had this terrible accident relived for them."
At an earlier hearing, prosecutor Keith Stewart said that the offence came to light in 2002 when the UK Passport Agency and the Office for National Statistics carried out a joint operation.
During this it was discovered that a passport application had been made in the name of Andrew Lappin on February 19, 1999.
Mr Stewart also told how the boy was killed in a road traffic accident on February 9, 1972, aged three years and 10 months."
Duffy, of 42 Newbattle Terrace, Edinburgh, used the passport to open a bank account and obtain a credit card with Lloyds TSB.
He admitted obtaining a passport by fraud on February 19, 1999, at the passport office in Milton Street, Glasgow.
He also pled guilty to obtaining a bank account and credit card services with Lloyds TSB Scotland by fraud between March 5, 2002, and August 12, 2005.
