Last time was 2005, of course I put down my real details but passport was never picked up and read by any border official.

To the best of my knowledge, security checks in airports don't involve passport checks, just body search and hand luggage search/scan.

You are joking??? They check passports at least three times!

When leaving the UK there is no requirement to have your passport checked. It is the airlines that check for their own reasons.

I was just starting to get paranoid, thinking my wife and I were being picked on! Like you, whenever we have ever flown, every man and his dog wants to see our passports.

When I took the ferry Dover to Calais this year, our passports were not checked all the way, even at the spanish/french border.

We only used then on the return visit via Santander where they were checked prior to boarding the ferry.

regards
al

It's all about schengan there are no borders within the EU except for the British isles so if you are leaving why bother but coming back you had better have it. If it is not checked at the UK Irish border then your carrier will have checked it on boarding so they don't have to bear the cost of repatriating you from whence you came. UK Ireland operate a common border so both check passports on entry to one or the other but not between them would be difficult with a non border between NI and Eire and simple walk on ferries to Scotland.

This is a ridiculous topic

Discussing the ways someone can ESCAPE country without I.D.!

There is NO LEGITIMATE reason to do this.. so why offer solutions!

The guy could be on the frikkin run for all you know!

AND even if he is not.. which is maybe unlikely, then who knows who might hop out the country using the tips mentioned!

Yes just like you our passports were checked three times when leaving the UK, this has happened on all three of our visits there in the last nine months.

You're kidding me, right?

If someone really wants to leave the UK and enter another country unseen then it's really very simple and I dont think any of the comments on here would have much effect In any case, passports aren't generally checked by any official government body when you exit the UK, only when you arrive. The only person who checks ours when we leave are the airline.

I actually was driven from the UK to Paris and back some years back. OK, it was in the back of a Jaguar but no one was remotely interested in checking my passport at any stage, either way. Hopefully they are more vigilant these days.

On the topic of leaving the UK, what prevents an unscrupulous (?) person flying people out of the UK in a private plane and landing at a private airport somewhere. Same with a boat to a beach or harbour.
Genuine question as I really don't know.

Planes should provide flight plans, but no, it's not impossible, just as it'sd not impossible for people to land in any other part of the EU, particularly those with cpoasts near to non EU countries, the South of France and Spain, sping to mind as there are specific sea watches for illegal immigrants and drugs being brought in by that route, and I suspect the same applies to the UK.

Yes, flight plans with details of those travelling
When we had private planes arriving in Birmingham Airport they were not allowed to come off the aircraft until we had gone on board and checked everything.

When I was in the UK we used to sail our boat to France regularly.

There were never any controls whatsoever about leaving the UK or arriving in France.

When returning you were obliged to call HM Customs to get clearance to leave the boat but this was often done by phone and nobody ever asked for ID.

Are you thinking of Asil Nadir ??