<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>Exclusive:</span></strong><span> Dawn Cook thought what happened to her and husband Andy four years ago was a one-off nightmare.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Then she read </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/immigration-skilled-visa-police-check-criminal-convictions-exclusive/b5d5820d-5e6c-4ec6-93a7-229b2598ce03" rel="" target="_blank" title="Shannon Smith's story"><span>Shannon Smith's story</span></a><span> and realised she was wrong.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dawn and Andy emigrated from the UK to Australia in 2009 and secured </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/immigration" rel="" target="_blank" title="permanent residency"><span>permanent residency</span></a><span> the following year.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/immigration-skilled-visa-police-check-criminal-convictions-exclusive/b5d5820d-5e6c-4ec6-93a7-229b2598ce03" rel="" target="_blank" title="Shannon's visa hangs in the balance over crimes she 'didn't commit'"><strong><span>Shannon's visa hangs in the balance over crimes she 'didn't commit'</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They built a life here and applied for citizenship in 2021, which involved getting a police check.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dawn's came back all clear; Andy's was a different story.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We were told he had an alias and had committed a string of crimes [including] larceny, drug trafficking, car crimes, and weapon crimes," Dawn told 9news.com.au.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/immigration-visa-police-check-false-identity-crimes-exclusive/8f724407-ca0d-484e-87aa-b5dbb0957699" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Andy's citizenship application was immediately put on hold.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em><strong><span>Have you got a story? Contact</span></strong></em><span> </span><strong><em><span>reporter Maddison Leach at</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="mailto:mleach@nine.com.au" target="_blank" title="mleach@nine.com.au"><strong><em><span>mleach@nine.com.au</span></em></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Documents sighted by 9news.com.au show that Andy was recorded as having committed multiple crimes in South Australia between 1978 and 1995 and using the alias "Andrew Cool".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He had supposedly been convicted of carrying an offensive weapon in 1978, speeding and failing to comply with traffic directions in 1991, and producing cannabis in 1995.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was also supposedly charged with larceny in 1981, but not convicted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Andy denied having committed the crimes, which occurred before he moved to Australia in 2009 and did not appear on prior police checks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Andy also denied ever going by the alias Andrew Cool.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dawn went into problem-solving mode when she saw what Andy had been accused of.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She contacted state and federal police, immigration, and the British consulate.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She paid $500 to speak with a lawyer, went to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's office for advice, and made monthly calls to the Department of Home Affairs.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I was spending all my spare time trying to contact people to sort the bloody mess out," Dawn said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>For months, she got nowhere.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A doctor was able to provide records that proved Andy was living in the UK at the time of the crimes, so he couldn't have committed them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But that proof wouldn't help if no one would listen.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We had no idea what the endpoint was going to be," Dawn said of that awful time of their lives.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Andy was convinced he was going to be made to go back to England."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/perth-family-facing-deportation-granted-permanent-residency/313eced7-6aa4-41ac-9760-68f9039e9aad" rel="" target="_blank" title="Perth family's 14-year fight to escape deportation finally over"><strong><span>Perth family's 14-year fight to escape deportation finally over</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The whole ordeal came to a sudden and surprising end after almost a year of fighting.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During one of her regular calls to the Department of Home Affairs, Dawn was asked to put everything in an email and spent three hours detailing her and Andy's experience.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>His citizenship was finally approved in August 2022, a year after they both applied.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dawn and Andy's citizenship ceremony was held via video call a few weeks later.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It was surreal," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"After all we had been through it just felt like a huge anticlimax."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dawn said they were never given an explanation as to what had gone wrong with Andy's police check.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>An Australian Federal Police (AFP) spokesperson told 9news.com.au that it was unusual for a police check to return an incorrect result.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"In the last 12 months, less than 0.0001 per cent of checks had to be reissued by the AFP," they said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Individuals who believe their police check has returned an incorrect result can dispute it on the AFP police check website.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Department of Home Affairs said it did not comment on individual cases for privacy reasons.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Cooks put the whole ordeal behind them and didn't think much about it again until earlier this month, when Dawn came across Smith's story.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The 28-year-old from the UK got a police check that said she'd been convicted of four crimes in Australia, one of which occurred when she wasn't in the country.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She told 9news.com.au she didn't commit any of the crimes but feared she could be forced to return to the UK.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The AFP told 9news.com.au Smith's police check was corrected and reissued.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But Dawn is disheartened to think other people are going through the stress and heartache she did even years after Andy's case was resolved.</span></div></div><div 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