Hartlepool man calls for birth certificate stamps to prevent ID fraud

By Kris Jepson

The Hartlepool brother of a baby whose identity was stolen 10 years ago by John Darwin, the man known as the ‘canoe conman’, has called for a legal loophole to be closed to help prevent identity theft.

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Alfie Jones, 59, has called on the Passport Office to stamp birth certificates to indicate that a person has died and believes this would prevent deceased identity theft, which accounted for 746 identity frauds in 2015.

Fraud prevention organisation Cifas today released data suggesting identity fraud has reached record levels. In the UK there were 172,919 cases and in the North East there were 3,842 cases.

The Passport Office told ITV News it currently has "no statutory power in place to close the loophole" and say it would be "impractical to link or annotate birth certificates” because it only keeps records of “life events” that occur in England and Wales.