Updated: Apr 22
A GANG led by a man believed by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to have been an enforcer for the notorious north London Adams crime family got fraudulent passports for fugitives, including Christy "Dapper Don" Kinahan and Glasgow murderers Jordan Owens and Christopher Hughes.
The conspiracy was led by Christopher Zietek, 67, formerly known as Christopher McCormack, who the NCA believed to previously be an enforcer for the Adams crime family in London, Reading Crown Court heard.
The group supplied fraudulently-obtained passports to on the run killers and drug traffickers.
The passports, which were issued authentically but applied for using false information.
Among their customers were Kinahan Cartel founder Christy Kinahan, Stephen Lawrence suspect Jamie Acourt, Liverpool drug trafficker Michael Moogan (below) – one of the UK’s most wanted fugitives who was arrested in Dubai in April 2021, and Manchester fugitive David Walley, an NCA investigation discovered.
Christy Kinahan senior is wanted, along with his sons Daniel and Christopher junior, by the US government for money laundering, which has issued a $5m reward (top image) for information leading to their arrest and conviction.
They are believed to be based in Dubai.
Zietek, who split his time between Sydenham, Ireland and Spain, and Anthony Beard, 61, were convicted alongside Alan Thompson, 73, in May 2023 at Reading Crown Court for their roles in a conspiracy to sell fraudulently-obtained genuine passports to criminal clients for up to £20,000.
Zietek was jailed for eights years and Beard for six, with Thompson getting three years.
In August 2023, the Court of Appeal later ruled that Zietek and Beard’s previous sentences were unduly lenient and the judge increased them to 12 and ten years respectively.
Thompson’s sentence was not increased.
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 NCA’s investigation began in 2017 – it ran in partnership with the Dutch National Police and HM Passport Office, and has been one of the most significant undertaken by the agency in recent times.
Beard and Zietek (above left), both from Sydenham, would exploit vulnerable people – often with drink or drug problems – who were around the same age as their clients and with similar facial features.
They were paid for providing their expired passports, and their details were used to apply for new ones but with photographs of the criminals. The crime group also paid others to countersign passport applications.
Beard (above right) was an expert in fraudulently obtained passports (FOGs) and NCA officers believe he had been procuring them for 20 years.
He was involved in every aspect of organising and applying for the passports, including collecting application forms and planning the details to be provided by the applicant and the counter-signatory.
His fingerprints were found on many of the forms, and contact numbers he included were for numerous burner phones he operated.
Handwriting experts established he completed most of the application forms, and a voice recognition specialist determined Beard called HM Passport Office to chase up applications pretending to be the people named on the forms.
Beard, who pleaded guilty to fraud offences, also admitted supplying over 70 FOGs used by other criminals, including Christy Kinahan, Jamie Acourt and firearms trafficker Richard Burdett.
He acted as the FOG broker and exploited his criminal connections to obtain clients for the crime group.
The NCA captured audio recordings in Zietek’s house of incriminating conversations with Beard and others about the application processes and their customers.
Officers also observed meetings with identity donors or counter-signatories, analysed reams of mobile phone and cell site data, and deployed undercover officers to deliver some of the passports.
Zietek and Beard were arrested during coordinated NCA raids in October 2021.
Between them charges were brought for offences of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to make a false instrument with intent (passports and ID documents), and money laundering.
Beard changed his plea to guilty on 3 January 2023, the first day of a nine-week trial, and Zietek was found guilty on 17 March 2023.
Thompson, from Sutton, Surrey, was also found guilty on 17 March 2023.
He worked for Zietek doing everything from chauffeuring him to criminal meetings to performing necessary tasks for the brokering of FOG passports, including meeting Beard when Zietek was abroad. A FOG passport and several photographs of FOG customers were located at his home.
Four people charged as part of the NCA investigation were later found to be innocent.
In March 2023 Juliet McCormack, 40, of Copthorne Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, who denied one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice and one count of conspiracy to make a false instrument and was acquitted of the offences.
Michael Thompson, 57, of Matlock Crescent, Cheam, Surrey, who denied one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice, two counts of conspiracy to make a false instrument and one count of money laundering, was also acquitted of all charges.
As was Mandy Smith, 63, from Sutton, Surrey, who was acquitted of one count of money laundering.
Kevin Crinnion, 73, of Homerton Road, east London, was found not guilty of one count of conspiracy to make a false instrument.