Speaking at an identity management forum in Sydney, AFP national coordinator for the identity crime task force Rob Tunnicliff said the lack of communication between state and government departments is limiting avenues available to the AFP for fighting identity crime, making it easier for felons to escape prosecution.

"The first stop for many criminals out of jail is the Births, Deaths and Marriages registry to change their name, from which point they could obtain a legal passport under the new name and leave the country - all because the departments don't communicate," Tunnicliff said.

"Privacy issues can cripple investigations, such as when the RTA refuses to provide suspect photographs or will only give us a low-quality hard copy which dramatically reduces the effectiveness of facial recognition software."

"We need a burden of proof to convict a suspect of ID crime, which means there needs to be malicious intent behind the design of fraudulent templates; however most designers don't know where or what the images will be used for."

He said officials dealing with passports and licences lack the means to verify legitimate documents by cross-checking installed security measures.