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Government agencies are preparing a special database to combat fraud as details emerge of an all-too-simple scheme being used to con finance companies.
One Kuwaiti refugee changed his name eight times, had 17 different driver licences and spent three years creaming more than $50,000 from Kiwi finance companies before he was caught.
The 31-year-old, arrested as Nasser Braxton Mutlaq, pleaded guilty two weeks ago to 20 charges in Auckland District Court and will be sentenced on August 1.
The police summary of facts said Mutlaq - who passed himself off as Maori on some of his many documents - arrived in New Zealand in 1999 and had previously appeared before the courts here.
Records showed that for the past three years he had moved around the country, working on farms and buying flashy cars, mag wheels, car stereos, mobile phones and a gold ring. He paid for them with money scammed from finance companies.
Detective sergeant James Robson, who spent years following Mutlaq's paper trail, said the "systematic defrauding" was quite simple.
Mutlaq would legally change his name by deed poll, then apply to LTNZ for a new driver licence.
He would use that licence as identification when applying for personal finance, then change names again as soon as companies started chasing him for repayments.
Robson said the fraud squad was investigating a number of other people - including other refugees - for similar scams, and warned finance companies to start cross-referencing numbers on licences before signing money away.
Driver licences should not be relied upon as formal identification, he said, although in practice many companies did exactly that.
But companies had no way of checking driver licence numbers, and had to base their decisions on a person's name only.
Names were easily legally changed, making any previous debts or issues difficult to track.
LTNZ confirmed last week it was working on an anti-fraud project to streamline systems between LTNZ and the Departments of Labour and Internal Affairs.
Jim Furneaux, Driver Licensing Standards Manager, said the "fraud project" was "well under way" - with the three agencies planning the database for the past few months.
At the moment, the agents issuing new licences could not see how many licences or names a person had previously held, or whether there could be an issue with handing out a new licence.
"What is likely to happen is we would require some sort of report to be run and that would then throw up certain anomalies," Furneaux said.
In a statement, the Department of Internal Affairs said proposals before Parliament included creating a formal register for name changes of overseas-born people who were permanent citizens or residents here.
End of the scam
On Valentine's Day, the 31-year-old Kuwaiti known as Nasser Braxton Mutlaq arrived at Auckland Airport with a beautiful girl on his arm to catch a flight to Brunei, police said.
But when Mutlaq recognised plain-clothed detective sergeants James Robson and Richard Kapa, he realised the game was up. Two weeks ago, Mutlaq pleaded guilty to 20 charges related to the "systemic defrauding" since 2003.
He bought a Mercedes, an Audi, a gold ring and mobile phones worth over $1000. He also admitted setting up a TradeMe scam - police said he used fake details to set up a profile, then demanded that buyers deposit money into his account before he would deliver the items.
Three people paid him up to $2278 but never saw their purchases.
