Anyone tempted to engage in cross-border contraband smuggling should be aware that, if they use their private vehicles in doing so, they will be liable to forfeiture. A case concerning the seizure of a speedboat that was used to smuggle more than 80,000 cigarettes across the Channel served as a cautionary tale.
The boat and her illicit cargo were seized by Border Force officers at a UK marina after the back panels of several lockers were unscrewed, revealing the cigarettes. The boat had earlier that day been transported on a truck and trailer, by ferry, from Dover to Calais. The amount of excise duty and VAT that should have been paid on the cigarettes came to over £30,000.
The boat’s owner, who was on board when she berthed in the UK, later admitted an offence of being knowingly concerned in a fraudulent evasion of chargeable duty. He received a suspended prison sentence and an unpaid work order on the basis that this was his first offence. Restoration of the boat was subsequently requested but refused by Border Force.
Dismissing the owner’s appeal against that outcome, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) noted that the general policy of the law is that it is reasonable and proportionate that smuggling using one’s private vehicle, with a view to profit, will, absent any exceptional circumstances, result in non-restoration of the vehicle.
Ruling that no such exceptional circumstances existed, the FTT noted that neither the value of the smuggled cigarettes nor the owner’s plea that the boat was worth more than the amount of duty and VAT evaded were relevant considerations. Border Force officers did not take immaterial factors into account and were entitled to conclude that the boat’s forfeiture would not cause him exceptional hardship.