'Jackal' jailed for identity theft of dead boy

Published on Friday 28 November 2008 09:04

AN Edinburgh man who obtained a false passport using the identity of a dead child has been jailed.

Gerald Duffy, 39, used the method outlined in Frederick Forsyth's bestseller The Day of the Jackal to get the document. He applied for the passport using the birth certificate of Andrew Lappin, who died in a road accident in 1972, aged three, and then used it to open a bank account.

Jailing Duffy – who lived in Newbattle Terrace in Morningside – for four years and nine months, judge Lord Turnbull told him: "You opened a bank account in a false name and then used it to pay for flights abroad and overseas hotels where you would have used the false passport. I consider there was a sinister and sophisticated aspect to all of this. The insult to the family of Andrew Lappin and the upset it caused them is obvious."

Lord Turnbull said that despite being repeatedly asked to give details of his bank transactions Duffy had refused to do so.

He added: "The obvious inference is that you obtained the passport and the bank account to perpetrate further criminal or nefarious purposes."

In a letter to the judge, Andrew's mum Florence told of how much loved Andrew was and how devastated the family had been by his death. She also said that Duffy's actions had deeply upset Andrew's family and she wished the case had gone to trial so that she could have given evidence against him.

After being shown the letter in court Duffy said: "I'm deeply ashamed of the anguish I've caused the Lappins. They have had this terrible accident relived for them."

But, minutes later as he was led away to begin his sentence, Duffy was smiling.

At an earlier hearing prosecutor Keith Stewart said that the offence came to light in 2002 when the United Kingdom Passport Agency and the Office for National Statistics carried out a joint operation.

During this probe it was discovered that a passport application had been made in the name of Andrew Lappin on February 19, 1999. Mr Stewart added: "The late Andrew Lappin was born on March 14 1968 in Liverpool and was killed in a road traffic accident on February 9 1972, aged three years and ten months."

The court was told that initially police were unable to identify the person using the passport but they checked applications for replacement passports and discovered one Duffy had made in 1996.

When Duffy's passport photograph was compared with that of Andrew Lappin they matched.

Duffy admitted obtaining a passport by fraud in on February 19, 1999 at the passport office in Milton Street, Glasgow. He also pleaded guilty to obtaining a bank account and credit card services with Lloyds TSB Scotland by fraud between March 5, 2002 and August 12, 2005.

'I wanted to confront Duffy'

THE mother of Andrew Lappin today told of her distress at discovering her son's identity had been stolen and used for fraud.

Florence Lappin, 67, a former classroom assistant, said: "I wanted to confront Duffy and to see him, but after putting us through this for two years he has pleaded guilty and we won't get that chance.

"I wrote to the judge who sentenced Duffy to explain how happy Andrew had made us.

"He was the youngest of eight at the time and he was born in the house on my birthday."