Know your enemy and know thyself

That was one of the many quotes from Sun Tzu (The Art of War). It is still used as a bible by the military all over the world. We too can learn from it.

Pre 1993 everybody knew where they stood, including Customs. You had an allowance when bringing goods back into UK and it was written in stone. Customs enforced it and nobody could argue with it because it was fair. Then on 1st January 1993 everything changed because we now had the EU Single Market establishing the free movement of goods, people, services and capital.

Customs or HMCE as they were known then, quickly became the tool of politicians and that has continued to this day … with a catalogue of disasters. The problem was, and continues to be, the extortionate Excise Duty on tobacco and alcohol in the UK when compared to mainland EU. lt would have been prudent to reduce our Excise Duty to be inline with mainland EU as many experts advised. Certainly HMCE would have been happy with this but sadly our politicians were not. The Conservatives were in decline at that time and their politicians were fighting for their seats in Parliament so to propose a reduction in Excise Duty was the last thing on their mind.

Then came Labour in 1997 and they systematically destroyed what HMCE were. By far the largest disaster was the policy brought in by the then Secretary to the Treasury, Paul Boateng. This was called Operation Maximum Disruption and this policy forced on HMCE which resulted in seizures of excise goods for any reason and often no reason at all. Car seizures alone were over 10,000 per year. This policy was specifically aimed at cross-border shoppers to intimidate them into not buying excise goods from the EU.

To be fair to HMCE, they did fight tooth and nail against the implementation of this policy but it was neverless forced upon them. HMCE had argued that this policy would be counter-productive because they would lose the ‘intelligence’ that they got from the public. They were indeed correct, the ‘intelligence’ dried up and has never come back. Operation Maximum Disruption hit the very people that HMCE depended on for ‘intelligence’ … the legitimate cross-border shopper. The legitimate cross-border shopper remains a target to this day.

Labour then went further and HMCE were disastrously amalgamated with the Inland Revenue in 2005 to become HMRC. 

Then Labour created the Border Immigration Agency in 2007 … another cockup that lasted but a year. They then compounded the cockup by creating the UKBA in 2008. This new agency comprised of the staff of Border Immigration Agency and the staff of HMRC responsible for border control. l think it is no coincidence that both these changes in 2007 and 2008 came in on April 1st  … April Fools Day!

Then along came this coalition government and despite all the promises it’s hard to believe Labour are still not the government. Nothing changed except for it getting worse.

On 1st March this year the UKBA were split up to form the Border Force and the UKBA. Is there any wonder our border policy is such a mess?

HMCE were professional and tried to maintain high standards. Now we have the Border Agency where you can become a border officer in 9 weeks! Well, in reality 5 weeks as it is 5 weeks training and then another 4 weeks operating the borders under supervision!!! No wonder long serving customs officers have left in their thousands for early retirement. As with PCSOs … we now have many ‘plastic’ border officers (Customs) .. the long serving Customs officers must hang their heads in despair.

End of Part 1. 

Part 2 to follow ‘know thyself’.

UK Customs Dealt Massive Blow!!!!!!

“A husband and wife have won a High Court ruling that Customs and Excise acted unlawfully when they seized a £3,000 private car used to transport alcohol and tobacco bought during a cross-Channel shopping expedition.

In a decision affecting hundreds of other similar cases, two judges ruled that the seizures breached the rights of Ian and Jennie Newbury, of Worton Road, Isleworth, Middlesex.

The seizures had taken place because one of the passengers in the car, Phyllis Reed, admitted buying tobacco and cigarettes which were not for her own personal use but paid for by other members of her family.

Clarifying the complex laws on levying excise duty, Lady Justice Hale, sitting with Mr Justice Moses, ruled that the seizure of Mrs Reed’s goods had been legitimate.

But seizing the car and the purchases made by Mrs Reed’s fellow travellers for their own use because they happened to be in the same vehicle was “unlawful and disproportionate”.

The judge described how Mr Newbury, 52, arrived back at Dover with three passengers driving the Austin Montego belonging to his 42-year-old wife.

The car was randomly stopped by a Customs officer, and Mrs Reed, now deceased, admitted buying 30 pouches of tobacco and 600 cigarettes which were not for her own use.

The judge said: “She had been given the money to purchase them by her daughter and son-in-law, who had not travelled.”

Mr Newbury had told his passengers that they could only buy goods for their own consumption, or as gifts.

Lady Justice Hale agreed with Customs lawyers that forfeiture could be ordered when UK duty had not been paid on excise goods held for others who had provided the money to buy them. But she upheld a Maidstone Crown Court ruling in August last year that the courts were entitled to outlaw the forfeiture of the vehicle – later sold by Customs – and items other people in the car had bought for their own use.”

Read HERE

Can’t find it on in any other reports in other newspapers. We’ll get the full judgement at some point through Bailli.

Wonderful news! I’m not too sure of the report though … 30 pouches? … that’s only 1.5 kg! … surely not? Mind, it is DOVER!

UPDATE

It is indeed an old judgement. However, it comes after the Hoverspeed cases including the subsequent appeal therefore it sets a precedent. The full case is herehttp://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cg … od=boolean

What is really interesting is at the end. Customs compensation and payments were kept secret and if our own case is anything to go by, this compensation to Mr Newbury would have a gagging order. 

If Carlsberg Did Baccy Trips :)

The time is fast approaching when we will be booking the Hull-Zeebrugge trips. We aim to make these trips fun as well as being the best trips anywhere bar none. The minibus is now equipped with not only a great sound system but TV and video/dvd, USB phone charging points, tea, coffee and biscuits, fridge, blankets, wheelchair storage and computer. The computer will run presentations linked through the TV (disembarkation Hull) for those passengers that need reminding of what to do if stopped by UK Border Force. We’ll also be carrying digital recorders for those that ‘forgot’ to bring one. Subject to demand, we’ll hold a seminar onboard the ferry.

For those that book with us, we shall e-mail a checklist of what we expect from them … namely Statement of Truth and supporting docs although we will be carrying copies of important FOI’s etc anyway.

We shall be doing the route along the coast re Ostende, Adinkerke etc and visiting places of interest. Not all the trips will be the same as it depends on our passengers where we go … well, as much as possible anyway.   (I don’t think l could face Brugges though  ) We shall of course be visiting the tobacco shops somewhere en route for those that want to purchase tobacco etc.

Word of warning … these trips are not for idiotic ‘runners’ etc. Not only are they a complete pain in the ass and put the rest of the passengers and us (the minibus) at risk but we don’t condone smuggling in any form whatsoever. So, if you are a ‘runner’ etc … we don’t want you … period!

Depending on how far you are away from us (Hull) and how many there are of you will be crucial. We are trying to keep the costs down so we’ve come up with this :- Say you live in the Manchester area, for us to pick up 4 people would mean 4 trips totalling 400+ miles and 8hrs + driving time. That’s unrealistic for us. So what we propose is for you to come to us in your car and we’ll secure park it up near to the port so you don’t have the port parking fees …. and we’ll give you discount on the trip. I think that’s fair. Please note that you have to be a N2D Social Club member to come on these trips as that is the only way we could do it regarding complying with all the regs and insurance etc.

We should be able to book from mid September with P/O and what exactly is the price we will have to wait for P/O to tell us … but it will be 2 for 1’s so it will be cheap.

So, contact N2D SC now …  bob@n2d.me.uk   if you are interested in the Oct trips. We also aim to do it throughout the low season up to the end of March 2013. Dates will have to be decided as we will be doing trips for such as the Hull Submariners Association within the UK too.

Welcome aboard m’hearties. Let’s have some fun …….. savvy?  

Oop’s l forgot … of course you CAN smoke on the bus!

For membership of N2D Social Club go here www.n2d.me.uk/member.html

Join the FORUM … 

Appeals Against Seizure of Your Tobacco by Border Force … the Process

Border Force (BF) will try to intimidate you into not appealing against the seizure of your goods. They do this by saying that you will face costs of £1500 plus if you take your case to court and lose. However, HMRCs recent tactic makes these Border Force threats totally irrelevant. HMRC wait till the time lapses that you can appeal (1 calendar month)  and the Condemnation Proceedings are rubber stamped and THEN they hit you with a Duty Bill of £164.11 per kg! This surely removes any doubts you had about appealing 🙂

When you have your goods seized by Border Force, the first thing you must do is send for a Subject Access Request (SAR) to get a copy of the seizing officer’s notebook. This is because you won’t get a copy of it at the time of the seizure. The SAR will take up to 40 days … 10 days longer than you have to appeal.

Even if you audio recorded the whole interview, you still need a copy of said notebook to compare it’s contents to the transcript of the audio recording you made. Hopefully you did not sign the officer’s notebook as being a “true and factual account” of the interview.

For those of you that didn’t record the interview and also signed the officer’s notebook … all is not necessarily lost.

The next thing you have to do is appeal against the seizure. You have 30 days to do this. you should also have been given a 156 notice that states what Border Force seized off you and the ID of the officer that seized them. Also on here should be a reference number and an address that you send your appeal to. Unfortunately this is often missing so the address to send the appeal (recorded delivery) to is:-

National Post Seizure Unit
Border Force
3rd Floor West Point
Ebrington Street
PLYMOUTH
PL4 9LT

Tel  01752 765817
Fax 01752 765816
e-mail plymouthpsu@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Photocopy the 156 notice and send it with your appeal (keep a copy of your appeal for your records). Also send a copy of your appeal to your MP.

We now come to the appeal itself. The advice given on HMRC’s website is confusing to say the least. Because you are appealing against the seizure of your excise goods that were for personal (and gifts), that means you have to put in a Notice of Claim (NOC) this is your Appeal Against Seizure. There is no need to be nice, be forceful (not abusive).

Many people mistakenly take the other option which is ‘Restoration’. The reason is, as stated by HMRC themselves :-

You will not be given a decision on restoration if your reason for that request is that things were not legally seized or, in the case of excise goods, they were imported for your ‘own use‘.

We like to head the appeal letter with Appeal Against Seizure (Notice Of Claim) followed by Urgent Assessment Requested. We used to put ‘Review’ but now put ‘Assessment’ because of the internal language used by the National Post Seizure Unit (NPSU).

NPSU do not use the word ‘review’ when dealing with Notice of Claim appeals. The word ‘review’ is only used when dealing with ‘Restoration’ claims. What NPSU carry out is a Pre-Condemnation Assessment’ (PCA) and then they send you their findings in a ‘Pre- Condemnation Assessment Letter’ (PCAL).

No, don’t ask … HM Customs used to be perfectly happy calling them reviews. There is the likelihood that NPSU could refuse a request for a review because you didn’t ask for an assessment. Don’t laugh, it has just happened to someone!

So, make it clear for the NPSU PCA Officer 🙂

You can just put in an NOC and wait for the court case but your aim should be to get this resolved at this stage so to as not go to court. To do this you have to show that the reasons the BF officer gave when they seized your goods are wrong so you’ll have to address each reason in detail. Supply NPSU with documents and facts to prove your case. Go further than this and throw everything at them including the kitchen sink. Write it in such a way that others like the magistrates (should it end up in court) can see that you did everything possible to avoid your NOC going to court. The inference being that NPSU’s decision to take it to court was totally unreasonable. The contents of your transcript of your audio recording should give you plenty to work with. Pick up on every minor detail no matter how small.

For those of you that didn’t record the interview and signed the officer’s notebook, try and remember everything you can and write it down as early as possible. lf you feel you were pressurised or intimidated into signing this notebook … put it into your NOC. The officer will state that you read the contents of their notebook. Did you? Could you read it? Did you understand it? … if not, put it into your NOC.

When NPSU receive your NOC then all you have to do is wait for the reply. lf in the meantime your SAR turns up and you find things in it that support your case … write them down and send it to the NPSU.

When you get your reply (the PCAL) from NPSU you’ll invariably find that not only has the PCA Officer rejected your evidence in favour of the seizing officer but they’ve probably added a few other spurious reasons for seizure. DON’T BE FAZED by this, it’s common practice in our experience. We call it a reply by the ‘coffee machine’.

Write back and tell them to look at it again … and to read it this time. If they’ve added spurious reasons, address these too but be forceful. Keep on at them by phone, fax, e-mail, letter … and keep at them. By this time you should definitely have your SAR, so use anything in it that you can.

We’ve seen lately that the NPSU seem to be using another tactic and that is to press on with taking your NOC to court regardless … and then just as your case date is very near … they give in! This in our view is another variation of their Maximum Disruption policy to cause you as much inconvenience as possible. No doubt hoping that you won’t cross-border shop again because of the recent experiences inflicted on you. lt should however prove to be the exact opposite … because you WON!

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‘Mafia’ Sponsored By The Government

Mafia whether they be Russian, Chinese or any other nationality have been well looked after by the various governments of the UK.  So much so you’d think it was the government who approached the criminal fraternity and said “We’re gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse’

Government hiked the taxes of tobacco so high that the profits to be got from smuggling indeed couldn’t be refused.

To ensure that there’s enough customers to go round for all the Mafia gangs, the government directed their agencies such as UKBA/Border Force to target legitimate cross-border shoppers. These shoppers once robbed of their legally bought goods invariably ended up as customers for the smuggling trade.

Further help was given by the government when they made laws that forced shops to hide the legitimate tobacco products making it an ordeal to purchase one’s tobacco of choice. No such problem with the illicit trade … their customer service is second to none … they’ll even make home deliveries!

The Mafia gangs then sought more profit by counterfeiting the reputable brands. Technology allowed them to do this but only to a certain degree because the reputable brands used embossing and the like on their packaging. The Mafia gangs found this very expensive to replicate. So they went and saw their friends in government and asked them to do something about it.

Government duly obliged and brought in plain packaging.

Truly Golden Years for the criminal fraternity 🙂

It matters not that the government has destroyed legitimate businesses and put people on the dole. What next, you ask? Well, alcohol of course!
………

Join our FORUM

N2D Forum now open! Come and join us.

Ok, l don’t really know what l’m doing with this but l’ll give it a shot as people keep asking for a forum. Going to need moderators and ideas blah blah.

Forum is here and open for membership … let’s see what happens!

N2D Social Club’s Successful Baccy Trip! **UPDATED**

Our bus has just completed it’s first mission into enemy territory that is new to us … so we can officially put up the first ‘tally’ 🙂

lt was also our first time via the Channel Tunnel and through the Coquelles Border Force setup. It’s given us something to think about.

So to the trip … we arrived at the Tunnel and through passport controls. It was there we encountered our first contact with Border Force.  The female officer had a somewhat arrogant manner and wanted to know where we were going and what we were buying. Cue Zaphod … who politely questioned what concern her interest was in our travel details and especially our intended purchases. She did not like this at all and became quite aggressive and then threatened us with “they’d get us on the way back!’


Zaphod then produced his recorder and demanded her id number (it was hidden as often is the case). She very reluctantly gave it up …  4604. With that we were on our way to the next passport control … the French one. This officer’s attitude was in total contrast to Officer 4604. He was smiling and joked with us, did a cursory passport check and we were on our way.

We arrived in France and were first off (disabled priority) and 30 or so mins later we were in Adinkerke at Tobacco Real. It was great to see Peter again (the owner of Tobacco Real). We spent a good while chatting with him about the social club and the trade in general. Our guys bought their goods, we filled the bus up at Peter’s petrol  station ( approx £1 a litre) and we were on our way again … back to the promised awaiting ambush by Border Force at Coquelles.

We flew through the friendly French Customs no problem and then were onto our Border Force. The officer was a middle-aged guy and like the French ones very friendly. The mood was very jovial as he checked our passports (interestingly, this was the first time mine and Zaphod’s passports had been looked at. In the UK we only handed over 3 passports of the guys onboard to Border Force and their French counterparts but they didn’t request the others … including ours. )


The officer read details off his computer and then apologised to us and said we had to be detained for a while and would we go over to the search area (Sked sheds). He kept all our passports and off we went to the Sked sheds.

Everyone was quite calm as all were well prepared for this eventuality. We parked up, open up all the doors and everyone exited into the French sunshine. We were smoking and generally chatting as we took in the glorious rays and awaited the Border Force. There was only 1 other vehicle there and it was a coach full of kids and families. They all boarded and we were then the only solitary vehicle there.

The toilets are inside the main building so some of us wandered off to use the facilities. Outside the building l struck up a conversation with another Border Force officer. We were talking about Harley Davidsons due to him commenting on my HD t-shirt. After about 10 mins, l returned to our bus but no Border Force officers had turned up yet.

About 5 mins later a female officer approached with all our passports. She handed us them back and told us to be on our way!

Stunned, we boarded the bus and drove off into the sunset 🙂

Explanation? …  l have none.

So the bus is no longer a virgin … first mission completed. Maybe we can acquire a mission tally like this 🙂

Got to give a mention to 2 of our ‘boys in blue’ at the Tunnel shopping centre in the UK. Take care guys, l don’t know who’s crazier … you 2 or me? 🙂

Credit also has to go the French officials (UK and Coquelles)  ….  and the 2 Border Force officers l encountered at Coquelles. May the sun always shine on you.

Oh,  Officer 4604 … get a life … and a personality transplant.

And last but certainly not least … P, J, T and M!  Simply the best!

ps Bobi assures me he has now officially retired from ‘driving’ 🙂

UPDATE

Thought we’d go the way of the WW2 aircraft. Life’s made to have fun 🙂