Kiwi dad Dane Moule's desperate bid to see son in Aussie lands him in court

RNZ News

2 days ago

By Tracy Neal, Open Justice reporter of
Dane Moule was sentenced in the Nelson District Court on charges linked to him forging two passports and travelling in and out of New Zealand for three years.
Photo:
Open Justice/Tracy Neal
A man with a "chequered past", including a conviction list spanning 12 pages, was aggrieved when his partner left and took their infant son to Australia.
It was the catalyst for Dane Antony Moule to forge two passports so he could travel between New Zealand, Australia and Fiji for three years using the false travel documents, clearing Customs and Immigration each time.
Moule told police he "used a fake passport to travel" because he knew he wouldn't be allowed into Australia, where his son was living.
Judge Tony Snell noted Moule's extensive criminal past included 83 previous convictions for drug matters, including importing heroin, violence, dishonesty, fraud, sexual offending and driving matters.
The 61-year-old today narrowly avoided prison, partly because of health problems he suffered, and was instead sentenced to 12 months of home detention on two representative charges laid under the Passport Act for false representations and using forged and false New Zealand travel documents.
The charges carried a maximum of 10 years and five years in prison, respectively.
Moule's guilty pleas followed an amendment to what was initially eight separate charges.
His lawyer, Mark Dollimore, said in the Nelson District Court that Moule had formed a relationship in the early 2000s and his son was born, but then his partner left with the child for Australia.
"He knew he couldn't get to Australia because of his conviction history and he wanted to see his son, and try to re-bond with him," Dollimore said.
"This is what fuelled him to do this."
According to the police summary of facts, Moule asked an associate to complete the first of two passport applications in May 2015.
The New Zealand passport was processed and issued by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) in his associate's name, but with Moule's photograph.
The following month, Moule travelled from Auckland to the Gold Coast, clearing Customs with the passport, knowing it was false, police said.
Moule used the same passport to fly back to New Zealand, arriving in Christchurch a few weeks later.
He booked another trip to Australia in January 2016, using the same passport to travel from Auckland to Brisbane, returning eight days later.
There was then a hiatus in Moule's travels until February 2018, when he travelled to Fiji, using a different, falsely obtained passport.
He acquired this second passport in 2016, using the same associate to complete the application in his name but again using Moule's photo.
In February 2018, Moule took off for Nadi, having cleared Customs using the forged passport before travelling back to Auckland nine days later.
He was eventually caught by the facial recognition technology now used in passports.
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) issued passports that were then checked by immigration systems when people left or entered New Zealand.
At the border, New Zealand Customs used eGates to match the picture of someone's face in their ePassport with the picture it took of them at the gate.
Visual inspections were also used, acting group manager of border operations Paul Williams told NZME before sentencing.
He said that in circumstances where a passport was genuinely issued, but fraudulently obtained, it would not be easily identified by an eGate or a Customs officer.
The DIA began issuing New Zealand biometric passports in 2005, but dozens of false passports were discovered during security checks before a new online passport renewal system was introduced in late 2012.
DIA general manager of operations Russell Burnard told NZME that "falsely obtained genuine passports" were rare with none discovered since July 2024.
He said Moule's actions were detected as part of a data-matching security project undertaken in late 2020 after an update of its facial recognition algorithm.
In May 2021, Moule's image from his original passport in his own identity was matched against the images from his two falsely obtained passports, and the police were notified.
Judge Snell said it was essential the integrity of the New Zealand passport system was protected.
He said in Moule's case, aggravating features were the level of sophistication and premeditation.
"The level of deception was high," Judge Snell said.
From a sentencing starting point of two years and nine months in prison, Moule was awarded discounts for his guilty pleas and health status, which whittled the endpoint to two years.
The sentence of 12 months of home detention was to be followed by six months of post-release conditions.
Immigration New Zealand border director Geoff Scott told NZME that providing false, misleading or withheld information was a serious offence that increased risks for New Zealanders.
He said false and misleading information was an issue immigration authorities across the world sought to eliminate, and INZ worked closely with its domestic and international partners to achieve this.
The DIA said it was continually reviewing its manual procedures to minimise the risk of human error.
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This story originally appeared in the
New Zealand Herald
.