A north London woman was shocked to discover she had spent three years using an "illegal" passport - without being stopped once.

Tara Walker, a 21-year-old of Whetstone who studies music at Middlesex University, has had the same British passport since she was 16.

But on August 12 she was stopped by security at Eurostar in Paris and told she should not be travelling on her passport as it had been reported lost or stolen three years ago - even through she had never reported it missing. She then had her passport confiscated.

Since it was reported missing, she has flown twice to St Lucia and France, as well as to New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Spain, Scotland and Ireland.

"I never reported that passport lost or stolen and have been using it with no problems at all," she said. "It's just unbelievable, it could have been anyone using it, not me. I was gobsmacked and very embarrassed - I was treated as if I was a terrorist or something."

Ms Walker, who had gone on a ten-day holiday to Biarritz in France with her father and boyfriend, was given a passport receipt which enabled her to return home.

"This has caused me a lot of grief," she said. "If people who have got apparently cancelled passports can travel, it's another shambles for British security and security in general."

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said that while all travel documents are examined by immigration officers, not all are checked against its immigration database. She added that she would advise Ms Walker to apply for a new passport and said procedures were introduced at the end of 2003 requiring passport holders to complete a form if their passport was lost or stolen.