A WOMAN was shocked about Border Force’s lack of security as it failed to spot she had used her daughter’s passport to travel.

Anita Turner, 58, was travelling with friends on a day trip to France.

As the group were handing over their passports to pick up the tickets at the Port of Dover, Ms Turner’s friend pointed out she had taken her daughter’s passport by mistake.

The mother-of-two, of St David’s Avenue, Bexhill, thought she would have to cancel her trip.

She said: “I said to my friend ‘you’ve got to be joking’ and I just kept thinking ‘what am I going to do’? It would have been devastating to turn back because I was the one driving once we got there.”

Ms Turner was travelling on January 19 on a 9.25am ferry to Calais. She decided to see if officials would pick up the discrepancies in name or age.

She added: “The lady at the booth let us through and told us which lane to get into.

"I was amazed and then I thought there was no way I would get into the UK. Rebecca, my daughter, took the passport photo when she was 23, which was seven years ago.”

The group returned to the UK in the afternoon.

French officials and Border Force still failed to detect the 35-year age gap.

She added: “We passed the first checkpoint. At the second one, we were told to wind down the window. The officer took all our passports, read out our names and looked at us.

"He called out ‘Rebecca’, I didn’t want to answer but I replied ‘yes’ and then he let us through. Looking back, I just think it’s very dangerous that they didn’t check ID carefully.

“There’s all this talk about making our border security tougher and it’s scary to think how many of these incidents have happened.

"I could have been anyone, or someone dangerous trying to enter the UK.”

A home office spokeswoman said: “Border Force officers are rigorously trained to prevent those using fraudulent documents from entering the country.

“Our officers are also involved in the training of airline staff and immigration officers overseas to spot false documents to stop people from even beginning their journey to the UK.

“Between April 2010 and December 2018 more than 159,000 people were refused entry to the UK, including those refused for travelling on invalid documentation.”