PUBLISHED 30 JULY 2008
A security van carrying blank visas and passports was hijacked near Manchester in north England at 6:40 a.m. Monday, 28 July 2008. At least 3,000 blank passports and visa stickers in 24 brown cardboard boxes - intended for distribution to embassies and consulates abroad - were stolen.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which was responsible for the delivery, was entrusted to ship them abroad. An FCO spokesman said: "Although we have never used armoured vehicles, which are much less flexible and more expensive than the security vans we currently use, we have used non-armoured security vans for 15 years without incident."
The blank visa stickers - also called "vignettes" - and blank passports were destined for British embassies overseas for distribution to British nationals in other countries, the Foreign Office said.
The Foreign Office spokesman acknowledged the theft was a serious breach and said an immediate review had been ordered.
The van was en route with parcels from the premises of 3M Security and Printing Systems, the production site in Oldham outside Manchester, to the Royal Air Force base at Northolt northwest of London. The driver stopped briefly to purchase a paper, and the van was then hijacked - with the passenger - and driven to a nearby location.
The passenger was threatened but unharmed, and the 24 boxes with the documents were removed.
Greater Manchester Police investigating
A spokeswoman said that the incident is being investigated by the Greater Manchester Police. She said that the Home Office and Identity and Passport Service (IPS) have taken "preventative action" to guard against forgeries.
Detective Chief Inspector Bill McGreavy said: "The offenders have not taken all the items from the van."
He estimated the actual value of the passports to be about 2.5 million GBP, adding that he had "no significant information" to suggest it was a "targeted theft."
Inspector McGreavy said police did not believe weapons had been used. "The police are trying to put together the movements of that van and movements of staff from leaving the depot. We do want to discover what the normal routine was with regard to this pick-up and delivery."
He reassured the public that the passports contain microchips which can be encrypted, "so they're very secure."
On Monday, Greater Manchester police said that they believed two men were involved. The theft was executed so rapidly that the police raised the possibility that the theives knew what they were after.
Detectives are looking for "at least" two suspects, and the van is being forensically examined for all possible information.
