'Jay' needed passport because he was getting married

By BRIDGET CARTER

Zev William Barkan is among four men officials think may be Israeli spies here as part of a New Zealand-passport conspiracy.

Authorities say he is missing, that he has left the country, and they admit they would not know where to find him.

But detailed descriptions of the mystery man and his stay in New Zealand were revealed during a depositions hearing in the Auckland District Court last week for defendants Uri Zoshe Kelman, 30, and Eli Cara, 50.

Barkan, 37, has been in and out of New Zealand since November, once staying at a Sandringham flat for a few weeks after answering a woman's advertisement for a flatmate. He has also been at a student home-stay.

People whom he stayed with said Barkan would get up early and return late at night, eating elsewhere.

They remember him using the first name "Jay". Others know him by the identity he allegedly stole from a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy sufferer, who has name suppression.

He is a short, stockily built European man, with thick black hair and has an American accent.

One person said he was friendly and talkative.

He said he was from Washington DC, where he worked for a window and doors company. He had come here for a sailing course.

He allegedly tried to obtain a false passport during his latest trip to New Zealand, from March 3 to 20.

He opened a mailing address under the wheelchair-bound man's name, and also gave the name to a telephone message-answering service.

On March 12, he approached the company Travcour, asking for help to urgently get a passport. The rush was because he was getting married.

Eventually, staff at Travcour received a telephone call from police, who were investigating the case and set up a trap.

Barkan said he was out of town, and that a friend would pick up the passport from an Auckland apartment block.

Police began a surveillance operation, following Kelman and Cara. They arrested both men and eventually charged them with attempting to obtain a New Zealand passport and participating in an organised crime group to obtain a false passport.

Kelman and Cara deny knowing Barkan, but court documents showed they were in the country at the same time and that there was contact between them. A car he rented was allegedly found at Kelman's hotel, and he had the keys. At the time of their arrest both defendants received cellphone calls from an unidentified person with a foreign accent.

Both men refused to say anything about his identity.