'Impossible' to bar all criminals says Immigration Service

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

The Immigration Service says border security is improving but it is impossible to catch every foreign criminal trying to slip into the country.

Yesterday the Herald reported the case of Bradley Nelson Page, an American killer who was caught exposing himself to a woman in Te Awamutu in January.

Page was convicted in 1984 of killing his Chinese girlfriend, Bibi Lee, while she was jogging on a mountain trail in hills above Oakland, California.

He confessed to the killing five weeks later and also admitted committing necrophilia on her body.

Page was repatriated to the United States under police escort a week after his conviction.

He is one of four serious offenders who have been caught this year after entering the country undetected.

New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters yesterday called on Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel to tighten border controls.

Immigration Service operations manager Andrew Lockhart said security had improved but the system was only as good as the information it received.

"I don't think there should be any illusions that we're going to catch everybody that has a criminal conviction.

"To some extent we are reliant on people completing truthfully the arrival card."

Mr Lockhart said the service worked with New Zealand police, airlines, and agencies such as Interpol to keep tabs on offenders who may try to thwart border controls.

A new computer system called Advanced Passenger Processing, due to begin operation next April, would give the service a head-start in repelling foreign offenders.

The system, which has been used in Australia for over two years, warns airlines of suspect passengers before they board.

Mr Lockhart said international communication had improved since the September 11 terrorist attacks but it was inevitable that some offenders, like Bradley Page, would still elude detection.

Others to have slipped into the country past border controls this year are:

Scotsman Archie "Mad Dog" McCafferty, aged 53, was arrested in Kawerau last month and repatriated after failing to declare his criminal convictions when entering New Zealand.

He was jailed in Australia in 1973 for killing three people and repatriated to Britain after his release in 1997.

Indian sex offender Balwinder Singh was found living in Pukekohe last month after beating immigration controls by changing his name.

He was deported after serving a prison sentence for the attempted rape of a deaf woman in 1987.

Criminally insane killer Claude John Gabriel escaped from psychiatric care in Australia to hide in New Zealand. He returned to Australia voluntarily on May 12.