Hauliers who smuggle diesel to be targeted
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• by Karen Miles Hauliers smuggling diesel into the UK are set to become the latest target for Customs.
Anecdotal reports of hauliers stepping up their secret importation of cheap, Continental diesel in belly tanks and jerrycans has attracted the interest of Customs officials, who are assessing the scale of the problem before switching enforcement resources to deal with it.
Customs are already investigat ing a number of hauliers who are suspected of repeatedly crossing the Channel for foreign diesel which they store in bunkers in the UK.
Smuggling is said to be particularly prevalent between Eire and Northern Ireland, where a land rather than a sea frontier makes smuggling easier for hauliers. "We have already started to think how we might measure the problem," says a Customs official. It is foremost in our minds." Hauliers can legally import fuel when it is carried in a truck's standard tank and is for the sole use of that vehicle. But the law prohibits hauliers from importing fuel in belly tanks or any other kind of container.
The incidence of smuggling has increased as hauliers are tempted to break the law to evade the UK's high rate of duty.
In the past few days Customs officers have stopped a Transit van smuggling 1,300 litres of diesel and a Maestro van with 375 litres.
The move against diesel smuggling follows similar cam
paigns against tobacco and aim hoi—earlier this year Chancellor Gordon Brown pledged to try to stop the annual i'1.5bn loss in cigarette tax revenue. N For details of the law on importing fuel see CM it-10 March.