A Cheshire man says he has been banned by easyJet and targeted by police because of his name. University graduate Kieran Harris says the problem has got so bad he's considering changing his name if the problem carries on.
The 21-year-old had booked a flight from Liverpool to Alicante, Spain, in April and was supposed to be flying with easyJet on May 25. But the day before he was due to jet off, Kieran received an email telling him he couldn't board the flight due to 'previous disruptive behaviour'.
He was also told he had been issued a '10-year no-fly sanction' with the airline, which only expired in March 2031. Kieran, from Parkgate near Ellesmere Port, said: "My friend got an email at 6pm the night before the flight, saying they had this ten-year flight ban and I was just removed off the booking.
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"I was gutted. I couldn't quite get my head around it. I wasn't on the booking anymore, I didn't have a seat on the flight, and there was no point in me even going to the airport."
Kieran says the problem is due to easyJet confusing him with another man named Kieran Harris who was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison for behaving aggressively and abusively whilst drunk on a flight in 2021. The trainee auditor says the issue is made worse as the pair also share a birthday.
And it's not just easyJet which he claims has mixed the pair up. Kieran says the Metropolitan Police stormed his house in bulletproof vests last year after misidentifying him as the wrong Kieran Harris.
On another occasion, he claims to have been mistaken for the other bloke after being involved in a collision when cops looked him up on their database. "We've had this previously," he said.
"It's this person who obviously has the same name and date of birth as me. The police turned up at my family home last summer trying to question me.
"It was quite serious, but within five or 10 minutes they knew that it wasn't me. News articles are published with a photo of this person and you can see that it's not me.
"They're accusing me of doing something, whereas if they saw me in person any human being would be able to see that it's not me, it's just a bit frustrating. I'm thinking of getting a name change if this continues to happen."
Kieran claims that easyJet requested a picture of his passport to confirm his identity, and eventually lifted the accidental ban - leaving the stressed holidaymaker with just hours to get to his flight. Although the issue was resolved eventually, Kieran claims that the 'stressful' experience has deterred him from flying with easyJet again, as he had to take time off work to go back and forth with the airline over the phone.
Kieran said: "We'd booked the holiday a month ago and we even checked in online over a week ago, so there has been so much time for them to contact us. I was gutted because I'd booked a day off work [for the flight] and I've basically not been able to work today because I've been spending the whole day trying to ring easyJet to get this sorted.
"It's incredibly stressful. This has made me less likely to want to fly with easyJet in the future. I definitely don't want to fly with easyJet again."
Kieran's mum, Sheena Harris, recalled the moment the Met Police 'burst into the house' last May. She says they left once they realised that the 21-year-old's physical appearance didn't match that of the convicted criminal.
Sheena said: "Last May, in the early hours of the morning, the Met police turned up at the front door. They burst into the house, burst into his bedroom and got him to come downstairs.
"Then their attitude started to shift, and it became quite obvious that they'd seen him and his physical appearance and started to back off slightly. They sat him down and explained that there is someone else with his name and his identical date of birth who lives somewhere in the North West, and this person has committed some sort of crime.
"They said that the information they had been given had led to Kieran's doorstep. It was very frightening; it was quite traumatising."
The relentless misunderstandings have left the 54-year-old mum believing that it might be time to seek legal advice so that her son can 'move on with his life'. Sheena added: "He just wanted a week's break in the sun to have a rest from work after lots of exams and revision.
"If this incorrect information is shared by easyJet, that could cause some quite serious issues. It's quite upsetting.
"He's a young man who has done nothing wrong, and it's not very nice to think that there's someone out there [like that] who has the same details. Kieran will change his name if he has to in order to move forward in his life without having this hanging over him."
An easyJet spokesperson said: "We are very sorry that Mr Harris was incorrectly advised he couldn't fly with us. We made this decision in good faith as Mr Harris shared the same name and date of birth and was flying from the same UK region as a passenger we'd previously banned for a serious offence onboard.
"As soon as Mr Harris contacted us we resolved the matter and while he flew as originally planned we understand the frustration this will have caused so our team are in touch with him and will offer a gesture of goodwill in light of his experience." A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: "This complaint did relate to police attending an address for a Kieran Harris and it appears to have been a mistaken identity, for which we have sent an apology in writing."
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