Royal Air Maroc must pay €10,000 over fake passport with mismatched “I” and “1”
A passenger who boarded in Casablanca travelled with a fake French passport containing several irregularities, including a letter in place of a digit. Royal Air Maroc contested the €10,000 fine, arguing that the forgery was impossible to detect. A French court has now ruled.
On November 18, 2023, a man arrived in France on a Royal Air Maroc flight from Casablanca. He presented a French passport that caught the authorities’ attention. On the document’s pages, the perforated number contained the letter “I”, while the printed number contained the digit “1”. This tiny discrepancy was among the irregularities examined by the Paris Administrative Court.
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Checks revealed three other irregularities. On the identity page, the typeface and the hologram depicting Marianne did not match those on a genuine French passport. Inspectors also found signs of scraping on the printed background of the signature area.
The French Interior Ministry then fined Royal Air Maroc €10,000 in a decision dated July 17, 2024. The airline challenged the penalty before the Paris Administrative Court, arguing that the document’s defects were impossible to detect with the naked eye at boarding.
Four irregularities the agents should have spotted
In its ruling of October 15, 2026, the court examined the various signs of forgery. The judges found that a boarding agent trained in document checks should have noticed these irregularities, particularly the discrepancy between the passport’s two numbers.
French regulations require carriers to check documents that allow passengers to enter the country. In the judges’ view, the irregularities were sufficiently obvious to make the Moroccan airline liable.
The court therefore dismissed Royal Air Maroc’s appeal and upheld the full €10,000 fine. The airline had also sought €2,000 from the state to cover its legal costs. That request was also rejected.
