Dead child's name used to get a job

A Ghanaian-based in England, who works as a security guard, stole a dead child's identity to get himself a fake passport and national insurance number.

Michael Ferguson, 36, of Colliers Water Lane, Thornton Heath, applied for his job under the name of Stuart Oakley.

He also had a British passport, credit cards, a national insurance number and mortgage applications all registered in that name.

But it actually belonged to a child from Birmingham who died in 1968 and last Friday Ferguson was jailed after admitting the crime.

Officials from the Department of Work and Pensions uncovered

She said: "He hadn't known where the information he was given had come from, but when he did find out he thought it was horrible a dead child's identity should have been used.

"It has caused him some distress."

Ferguson was jailed for eight months and will almost certainly be deported back to Ghana.

In an interview at South Norwood police station, Ferguson confessed he had taken on a new identity after the details were given to him by someone he had met.

Appearing at Croydon Crown Court on February 17, he pleaded guilty to obtaining a pecuniary advantage and using a false passport.

Suman Sharma, prosecuting, said Ferguson worked for a security company in October 2004, a job he would never have been offered if the real facts had been known.

Claire Davis, defending, said he was struggling to find work and the process of getting a passport in his own name was taking too long.

Impersonation of dead people is the fastest growing identity theft crime in the UK according to CIFAS, the UK's fraud prevention service.

Their latest research shows that in 2004 more than 70,000 families discovered their loved ones has been impersonated after their death to open accounts and apply for credit cards compared with 15,000 cases in 2001.

A Home Office spokesman said the UK Passport Service now held a database of babies' births and deaths dating back to the 1950s.

A total of 1,000 names of dead babies whose identities might be used by fraudsters are also on a world-wide warning list and applications are checked against 500,000 records.

The National Crime Squad, police and Immigration Service have also started targeting people who impersonate dead children under Operation Wisdom which begun in 2002.

By June last year their work had led to 255 arrests, 50 convictions and 20 deportations.

A Home Office spokesman said: "In October 2006 we will also be introducing a new measure where first-time adult applicants will have to come in for a face-to-face interview before getting a passport."