Wellington, New Zealand, July 2--A "ring" of frauds in Europe has been forging New Zealand wool testing certificates on carpet wools sold there.
The New Zealand Wool Testing Authority said it had detected fraudulent use of test certificates on a small number of wool deliveries in Europe.
The authority can trace every document issued for the past six years through its system, and found the frauds when a customer sought verification of the authenticity of an International Wool Testing Organisation certificate allegedly issued by the New Zealand authority.
"The `certificate' was significantly different to that issued from the NZ computer system," said the authority's chief executive officer, Stephen Fookes. Further investigation confirmed that a number of other certificates used on wool sold to that customer also were fraudulent.
The New Zealand authority, which tests wool from all over the world at its Napier laboratories and issues certificates with its objective description and quality, discovered the fraud through an Asian company which bought wool from Europe and checked on its certificate.
"It looks as though there is a ring out of countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, and some on the Continent," Mr Fookes said.
The frauds, based on forging the hard copy of certificates issued by the authority and presenting them to buyers, had triggered the development of an Internet-based verification system, Mr Fookes said. As an added security, people buying wool tested by the authority would be able to look up the details of the original certificate on its website.
Much international wool trading requires a paper certificate to enable the use of a letter of credit to pay for the wool. "That's where the fraud has occurred," said Mr Fookes. "Somebody has taken the documents and re-engineered those documents to fit the contract."
He appealed to wool buyers around the world who had any doubt about the validity of any certificate to check with the wool-testing authority.
