Master counterfeiter deported

By Kris Sims, Parliamentary Bureau

OTTAWA -- A career criminal with a rap sheet stretching back to the 1990s has finally been deported from Canada.

"After trying get rid of this individual for more than 15 years, we are happy to report that he was finally put on a plane and sent back to Pakistan on Sunday," a government source told QMI Agency.

Michael John Hamdani arrived in Canada from his native Pakistan in 1994.

According to government documents, he was granted refugee status and soon started getting charged with crimes, mostly on fraud and forgery related charges.

Police dubbed him a master counterfeiter who could produce flawless fakes.

Official documents show a long trail of Hamdani's record, painting a picture of lies, false identities and fake passports.


After his first Canadian conviction in 1995, Hamdani was ordered deported.

However, refugees who commit crimes are allowed to appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) if they are sentenced to less than two years.

Hamandi's highest-profile charges stemmed from an incident that caused an international terrorist search. He was in custody in the United States in 1996 on fraud and forgery charges, skipped bail, and slipped back to Canada.

Years later, in 2002, in Brampton, Ont., he was picked up on more fraud charges. This time police said he was churning out millions of dollars in fake travellers cheques, passports and drivers licences. While in custody, authorities say he told a story about five Middle Eastern men who paid him thousands of dollars for fake passports so they could hop from overseas to Canada to the United States, possibly plotting terrorist attacks. The tale caused a stir and the FBI went on a national man hunt for the suspects.

However, it was determined Hamdani made up the whole thing, attaching fake names to pictures of random people, and the search was cancelled.

Master counterfeiter deported - Crime - Canoe.ca