An Iranian man waiting to board a flight to London was arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday for using a false Danish passport to enter Thailand.
Hassan Gholami, 27, an Iranian national, was detained shortly after he arrived at the airport around 10am on flight PG270 from Phuket. He was about to board a flight to the United Kingdom, according to Pol Col Choengron Rimpadee, deputy superintendent of the Immigration Bureau’s division 2.
He was using a Danish passport in the name of Kris Stecher.
Under interrogation the man confessed he was an Iranian national. He had travelled from Tehran to a country in eastern Europe where he bought a false Danish passport for US$5,000 (about 160,000 baht). He had hoped to use it to enter the UK and work there, first by taking a flight to Thailand, said Pol Col Choengron, the bureau's deputy spokesman.
Mr Gholami was charged with unlawfully using a passport of another person in a way that might cause damage to other people, and giving false information to officials.
The bureau is constantly arresting foreigners using false passports to enter the country, he said. Strict measures had been put in place to prevent this. False passports were tools for various types of crime, particularly financial fraud.
On Feb 1, an Iranian woman also en route to UK was caught at Suvarnabhumi airport for using a false UK passport to enter Thailand. She had also obtained it in eastern Europe and flown first to Phuket.
The airline tickets and false Danish passport (left) used by Hassan Gholami and his genuine Iranian passport (right). (Photo by Sutthiwit Chayutworakan)