New Zealand hired a fantasist for head of Defence Technology

This is quite a peculiar story. New Zealand hired Stephan Wilce to be head of Defence Technology in 2005, and gave him the top level security clearance. Of course they did a background check, but somehow they didn't notice that he made up vast amounts of rubbish about himself. The odd thing is, his lies were not subtle white lies, difficult to check on, or even believable stuff faking a degree or something. No, among the made-up fantasies he put on his CV:

• He was in the Winter Olympics and ran on the bobsled team competing against Jamacia, as depicted in Cool Runnings.
• Member of the Welsh national Rugby team
  
• British Spy and ex-Royal Marine
• Helicopter pilot for the Royal family
• Successful British folk music performer

Seriously, is the entire international intelligence community just a bunch of fools making stuff up?

Update on Friday, January 28, 2011 at 11:44AM by Adrian Liston

On an unrelated security topic, the Russian parliament is expected to respond to the horrific Moscow airport bombing this week by initiating colour-coded terrorist threat alerts.

South Island, New Zealand