A family has been left reeling after a city centre nightclub confiscated their 18-year-old son”s passport, which subsequently went missing.
Christopher Gordon was out with friends and had been in London nlightclub for around an hour when he was approached by a steward and asked for proof of identification.
His mother, Allison Honeyman (47), says that after the steward showed Christopher’s passport to a colleague, he said the form of identification had been shown to another member of staff earlier in the evening, they did not believe it belonged to him and asked him to leave the nightclub.
Ms Honeyman said, “Christopher said he would go, but he wanted his passport back.
“The steward and another member of staff refused to give it back to him, saying they would pass it to the police.”
She added, “They said he was to pick it up from Bell Street station the following morning.
“Christopher disagreed with this, stating that they should get the police straight away as he needed his passport back, but again, this request was refused.”
When the family went to Bell Street station the next day there was no record of Christopher’s passport having been handed in.
They have made numerous calls to Tayside Police to check whether it has turned up, but eight days after the incident there was still no trace.
Ms Honeyman said, “Christopher is going there again on Monday but if it still hasn’t appeared, we are going to have to decide whether to report it as stolen.
“What I would like to know is whether a nightclub has the right to take passports or any other official documents from someone without contacting the police.Theft fear”My biggest fear is identity theft, which is prevalent at the moment.”
She added, “I left five messages with the nightclub before my first call was returned and a member of staff claimed they were allowed to confiscate passports.
“I said I doubted they had any authority to take such an important government document and that proper protocol would be for the police to be sent for and then to validate whether or not the passport had been stolen.”
Ms Honeyman said that she and her partner Clive Gordon (46) had hoped to take Christopher and their daughter Terri (20) on a last-minute holiday abroad, but this plan has had to be put to one side because of the situation.
She said, “Fortunately we had not booked anything in advance had we done so, we would have lost our money.”
It is understood that the confiscation of passports by nightclubs is something of a grey area, but many businesses advise staff to steer clear of such measures, even if they suspect criminal activity.
The Identity and Passport Service advises anyone who has lost a passport, or had one stolen, to report it to them as soon as possible, as this will reduce the risk of anyone else using it or the holder’s identity. All passport thefts should be reported to the police.