Bruce Chilcott (71), who this week admitted 13 passport fraud charges related to him applying for and using a false passport in the name of Donald Edward McRobie, said he bought Mr McRobie's birth certificate in 2000 in Dunedin for $500.
He said he bought it out of desperation, so he could get a passport he could use to enter the United States, which he was no longer allowed to enter because he overstayed during trips there over the previous 15 years.
He needed to be able to go to the US so he could keep his New Zealand import business going. He also had interests in Fontana in Southern California, where he eventually owned property, ran a workshop and had people, mainly Mexicans, working for him.
A spokeswoman said Dunedin police were not yet investigating the sale of the birth certificate in 2000, and had not received any complaint in relation to it.
Department of Internal Affairs communications adviser Michael Mead said the department did not have concerns about any other fraudulent activity on the part of Chilcott.
At the time Chilcott applied for the passport, he would have had to present a birth certificate, a passport-sized photo of himself signed by a witness aged over 16 who had known him for more than year and who was not a family member and did not live at the same address. Now, applicants must provide two passport-sized photos of themselves, and someone to act as a witness who is over the age of 16 and has a valid New Zealand passport.
The department then carried out a series of checks, including database checks, for example, births, deaths and marriage and citizenship checks, to confirm the applicant's identity and eligibility.
The checks included a "death check" to prevent applicants fraudulently applying for a passport in the name of a dead person. The department planned to introduce routine facial recognition technology in passport application processing, Mr Mead said.
The technology would have prevented Chilcott from getting the false passport, and would make it "highly unlikely" someone would be able to commit this type of fraud again. Passport fraud of this sort was rare - in 2009 only nine of 500,000 applications were found to be false before or after the passport was issued, he said.
Police sought an order for the destruction of Chilcott's false passport and a credit card. However, a Dunedin police prosecutor yesterday said he could not say anything about the credit card, and the prosecuting officer who handled the case was not available.
A spokeswoman at the Fontana Police Department in California said neither Donald Bruce Chilcott nor Donald Edward McRobie had come to police attention in Fontana.
