Who is Anthony Beard? 61-year-old con artist found guilty of providing fake passports to British criminals, drug smugglers

Anthony Beard is a sixty one-year-vintage con artist from Sydenham, in South London
He turned into located responsible of providing faux passports to British criminals and drug smugglers
He is sentenced to six years, 8 months in jail

Two fraudsters, consisting of a man from London, Anthony Beard, have been found responsible of supplying faux passports to British criminals and drug smugglers for years or possibly a long time.

Who is Anthony Beard? Anthony Beard is a 61-yr-old con artist from Sydenham, in South London. He procured legitimate passports below other humans’s identities earlier than attaching the photographs of criminals, consisting of two desired killers. Targeting susceptible human beings with drug and alcohol issues he had met at rehab centers and homeless shelters throughout his very own battles with dependancy, he furnished 108 UK passports to criminals.

He picked the ones whose passports were about to expire as renewals do not name for an in-person interview like new packages do. He is sentenced to six years, eight months in prison.

“He changed into worried in each factor of organizing and applying for the passports, along with collecting application forms and making plans the information to be furnished by the applicant and the counter-signatory,” the NCA stated on Friday.

Anthony Beard pleaded guilty, while Christopher Zietek and Alan Thompson denied the charges, but were found guilty by the jury at Reading Crown Court.

Defending the trio, their lawyers said they had been driven to crime by boredom and old age

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His link to crook gangs, Chris McCormack, received an 8-12 months sentence. Alan Thompson, the 1/3 gang member, acquired a 3-12 months term.

As consistent with to the National Crime Agency, Beard’s customers “made an lousy lot of cash out of prepared criminality.” Moreover, the fraudsters had assisted “depraved, violent criminals,” in step with Judge Nicholas Ainley.

The NCA claimed that during a 20-year period, Beard may additionally have supplied as much as 108 fake passports that have been acquired fraudulently whilst charging between £15,000 and £20,000 for every one. As little as £one hundred turned into paid to the person whose passport became getting used.

Criminals who acquired passports consist of the Glasgow murderers Jordan Owen and Christopher Hughes, the Manchester assailant David Walley, the drug provider Michael Moogan, who changed into sentenced to twelve years in jail on Friday, and the alleged Scottish drug sellers Barrie Gillespie, Jamie Stevenson, and James White.