A British mum was shocked to find she had unwittingly travelled internationally using a passport that didn’t belong to her.
Lenesha Riely is calling for tougher checks at airports after she travelled via Easyjet from London Luton Airport to Berlin last week using her baby son’s passport.
The 33-year-old student was taking a weekend break with her mother and a friend after her exams when she realised that staff at Luton airport had failed to notice her passport was not her own. She told BBC News that ground staff “scanned the passport at the gate, checked my boarding pass and gave it back to me”.
“I was in the queue at border control in Berlin and opened my passport ready when I was two people from the front,” she said.
“I saw my son Josiah’s face and thought ‘no way’ – my heart sank – my short break is over before it starts.”
Riley said she was able to continue her trip after her brother sent a photo of her actual passport.
“Security measures should be stronger – even coming back through Berlin they check your passport at departures. It should happen everywhere,” she said.
A spokesperson for Easyjet told BBC News that the issue should have been picked up during the “visual check”.
According to Luton Airport, security at the airport was at no point compromised.
