Claire Wilson
MORE UK passports are lost or stolen in Spain than in any other country across the world.
Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database reveals that 5605 UK passports went missing in the country between 2012 and 2013 alone.
In second place is the USA, where a significantly fewer, 1539 were lost in the same period.
France, Italy, and Australia are in third, fourth and fifth place respectively.
The database was set up in 2002 following the September 11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center, and now has more than 40 million entries.
It is available to Interpol’s 190 member states, but only three are said to systematically search the database – the US, UK and the UAE.
I was offered a grand for mine. Naturally, being law-abiding, I refused. Would everyone? After all it only requires a long, boring wait at the cop shop for a crime number and a signed pass to get home.