Man arrested for copying athlete’s ID passes

Sydney: Police said on Tuesday they had arrested a Sydney man over the illegal copying of Australian athletes' Olympic passes.

Australia's star swimmer and double gold medallist Ian Thorpe was one of the athletes whose bar-coded identity tag had been copied, a Sydney Olympics Organising Committee (SOCOG) said.

Police said they had detained a 33-year-old man on eight counts of stealing but they would not identify which athletes had been targeted nor comment on local media reports that the arrested man had worked for SOCOG.

"We're not confirming who he worked for, how they were made, etcetera," a police spokeswoman said.

Police have denied reports that people used unauthorised accreditation to get into the athletes' village.

Security around Olympic accommodation has traditionally been tight since 11 Israeli athletes were killed in the 1972 Munich games after Palestinian guerrillas slipped into the village.

Sydney's police were called in on Sunday after Thorpe, approaching Australian legend status after sweeping two gold medals and two world records in the Olympic pool on Saturday, attempted to use his pass to enter the athletes' village.

Security staff found the bar code had been invalidated, a sure sign that copies had been printed.

Police said the electronic pass system operated like a credit card. If a new pass was issued, the previous one became invalid.

The SOCOG source said the illicit copies of Thorpe's pass were almost certainly being made as souvenirs and most likely by someone working in the accreditation centre.



(c) Reuters Limited.