Identity thief caught after 22 years

Hapless immigration officials have ended an identity thief's 22 years of deceit after finally noticing she was black but the person she was impersonating was white.

The woman, who still refuses to reveal her true identity, was jailed for nine months at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester after living falsely under the name Carol Anne Keast since 1989.
The impostor got an official copy of Carol Anne Keast's birth certificate 22 years ago and then several British passports in that name despite looking completely different to the real woman

All that time the real Carol Ann Keast, who lives in the West Midlands, was completely unaware her identity had been stolen. 

The court heard the bogus Keast was caught out on November 7 last year as she returned from a holiday in Marbella in Spain.
Even her partner TV and film producer Tom Henderson, who was with her at Manchester Airport, was completely unaware that she was living someone else's life.

Her partner, TV and film producer Tom Henderson, had no idea she was living someone else's life

Sentencing her Judge Jonathan Geake told her: 'You have fooled a number of people, and have been living a lie for a number of years. 
'Your real identity, it would appear to everybody, remains something of a mystery.' 
When she was caught she was challenged by immigration officers after they ran checks on her passport. 
She then gave her address as in West Bromwich but the checks showed there was already a woman of that address, with the same name, but who was white not black.
The impostor was then unable to give any information to support her claim to be the real Carol Anne Keast, insisting she suffered from memory loss. 
Prosecutor Sol Broady said: 'She is wilfully refusing to identify herself properly, or give her country of origin.'
Sarah Johnston, defending, said medical tests had shown her client to be displaying symptoms of depression and mental health 'fragilities'. 
The real Carol Anne Keast - who since 1982 has lived under her married name Carol Anne Payton - said she had only realised something was wrong months earlier when she tried to renew her passport
She said: 'I wasn't allowed. They said there was already one in my name with the same details. I had to go for an interview and prove who I was.
'I had to take in school documents and the passport authorities asked me questions about my family.
'They did eventually issue me with a passport and I was told that unless this woman used the passport that she had to travel, it would not flag up and they would not be able to chase her.
'But she did use it to travel - and that is how they caught her.
'It is a bit silly really because mine is a very unusual name and she is apparently about 20 years younger than me. 
'She is of African appearance and I am not. Neither are any of my family.
'How she thought she was going to travel and get away with it I will never know.'