Using False Identification Information by way of a Carriage Service to Obtain an Air Passenger Ticket and Take Flight

Using false identification information by way of a carriage service to obtain an air passenger ticket and take flight is an offence under section 376.3(2) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).

To establish the offence, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that:

1. You took flight using an air passenger ticket
2. Identification information was used, whether by you or another, to obtain the ticket
3. The information was used to identify you as a passenger on a flight
4. The information was false in relation to you
5. A carriage service was used, whether by you or another, to obtain the ticket, and
6. The fight started or ended in Australia.

‘Identification information’ is that which relates to a person, whether dead or alive, real or fictitious, that is capable of being used to identify the person, whether by itself or in conjunction with other information.

It includes:

1. A name, address, date or place of birth, marital status, relative’s identity
2. A driver licence or driver licence number
3. A passport or passport number
4. A voice print or biometric data
5. A credit or debit card, its number or data stored or encrypted on it
6. A financial account number, user name or password
7. A digital signature
8. Any series of numbers and/or letters intended for use as personal information, and
9. An ABN.

Identification information is false if it is false in a material particular that affects the capacity of the information to be used, whether by itself or with other information or documents to identify a person.

A ‘carriage service’ is:

‘a service for carrying communications by means of guided and/or unguided electromagnetic energy’, which includes telephone calls, text messages and internet transmissions, such as emails and the use of social media pages.

An ‘air passenger ticket for a flight’ is:

‘a ticket, or electronic record, on the basis of which a person is treated as being entitled to travel as a passenger on the flight, or a journey that includes a flight’.

If the prosecution proves that an air passenger ticket was obtained, the ticket is taken to have been obtained by way of a carriage service unless you are able to establish, on the balance of probabilities, that you did not obtain it in that way.

Duress and necessity are defences to the charge.