An Italian who independently extended the validity of his identity card and wanted to leave Romania through Petea customs is under criminal investigation, according to a press release of the Territorial Inspection of the Border Police on Sunday, as quoted by Agerpres.

According to the source, at the Petea checkpoint, a 51-year-old Italian citizen appeared for registration on leaving the country.

“A 19-year-old young woman, also an Italian citizen, was riding with him in the car. During the inspection of travel documents, our colleagues discovered that the date of validity of the Italian citizen’s passport had undergone mechanical changes. In particular, the term of validity of the document was changed from 2020 to 2023. The man noted that when he left for his homeland, he discovered that his document had expired. His travel partner recommended that he change the expiration date, which the man did without thinking,” the quoted message reads.

The man is being investigated for the crimes of forgery of official documents, use of official forgeries and leaving the country by illegally crossing the state border.