Members of gang who supplied criminals with fake passports get more jail time

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Members of a gang who supplied sake passports to Glasgow murderers and many others in the criminal underworld have been given longer jail sentences after appeal judges said they were previously "unduly lenient".

High level criminals paid Christopher Zietek, 67, Anthony Beard, 61, and Alan Thompson, 73, up to £20,000 for the fraudulently obtained genuine (FOG) passports, that enabled them to go on the run and start a new life abroad in countries including Spain, Portugal and cities such as Dubai.Among their customers were Glasgow murderers Jordan Owens and Christopher Hughes, Liverpool drug trafficker Michael Moogan, and Manchester fugitive David Walley.The three were originally sentenced in May 2023 at Reading Crown Court, but at a hearing on Friday, August 25, the Court of Appeal ruled that Zietek and Beard’s previous sentences were unduly lenient and the judge increased them to a total of 22 years.Zietek’s prison term was raised from eight years to 12 years and Beard’s from six years to 10 years and two months.

Thompson’s three-year sentence was not increased.The National Crime Agency (NCA) had said, in May, that investigators believed Beard was responsible for at least 108 fraudulently obtained genuine passports being issued.

Jacqueline Beer, NCA Regional Head of Investigations, said: “These men ran a lucrative illegal enterprise that enabled some of the UK’s most heinous criminals to evade justice in the UK and cross international borders undetected. “The increase in their prison sentences adequately reflects the severity of their offending and the harm it did in the UK and beyond. “This case demonstrates our commitment to dismantling all types of organised crime groups that pose a threat to the UK public.” The