The federal government is attempting to revoke the citizenship of a Vancouver man who allegedly used three different names to hide his criminal convictions so he could become a Canadian.

According to Federal Court documents, Kamran Ladbon arrived in Canada in 1988 and proceeded to rack up a string of criminal convictions for drug possession, uttering threats and numerous traffic violations.

After he was convicted, his application for permanent residency was rejected and he was ordered deported from Canada in 1997. But he left on his own for his home country of Iran before he was actually thrown out.

A few months later, he applied for residency in Canada, this time at the embassy in Syria using the alias Kamran Modaresi and providing a new birthday. He was also sponsored by a new spouse.

But federal officials allege he failed to mention his past life in Canada, including his convictions, plus outstanding charges in Washington, the deportation order and his previous marriages and children.

His application was successful and he immigrated to Canada and in 2001, he was granted citizenship.

Arrested once again

But during his second stay in Canada, he was once again arrested under the name Kamran Ladbon, this time for the production of marijuana.

Because of the outstanding immigration warrant, he was detained, and then released on the condition that he report regularly to immigration officials.

Court documents say he also spelled his newly adopted surname of Modaresi two ways - either with one 's' or with two - creating another layer of confusion for officials.

Finally, in 2009, a border agent figured out the various identities belonged to the same person and last year Modaresi was convicted of lying to authorities and sentenced to house arrest.

But despite the prior removal order, the minister of immigration still needs to revoke the citizenship Modaresi allegedly got under false pretenses in order to get rid of him.

Modaresi couldn't be reached for comment. His last known address was a hotel in the Downtown Eastside where he was living after he was charged with theft this summer.