Plane steward who smuggled fake passports in his underpants jailed

An air steward who tried to smuggle fake passports into the UK by hiding them in his underpants has been jailed for five years. Shaukat Ali Cheema, a senior steward with Pakistan International Airlines, was arrested at Birmingham Airport in March.



Dozens of passports and driving licences were found in his underpants. The 59-year-old admitted seven counts of possessing false identity documents at Birmingham Crown Court.



Border Force officers found the documents, which also included passport bio-data pages, in specially constructed pockets sewn into the lining of the underpants.



Dawn Cartwright, from the National Crime Agency, said they were intended for people based in Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Pakistan. She said fake passports and driving licences were a serious concern, as they could be used by criminals to avoid detection.