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Customs cost innocent firm 11 k
Page 6
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• A Manchester haulier has slammed Customs officials after his truck was innocently caught up in a paraffin blunder at the Lymm Services fuelbunkering site on the M6.
Shannon Tolley, owner of JST International, says that Customs officials have no proof that his vehicle had illegal fuel in its tanks.
The saga started when Tolley's contract-hire company took his MAN tractor for its annual test. While it was there Customs officers staff raided the yard and tested fuel. They seized 11 trucks after claiming they were filled will untaxed red diesel.
Tolley immediately gave Customs officers receipts for all the fuel that he had bought: a list of bunkered fuel sites that the vehicle had used; and all relevant tachograph charts showing mileage matched to fuel used.
"I showed that we paid the normal price for the fuel but Customs still wanted £250 before they would return the truck," says Tolley. 'When I was impounded I asked for a sample of the diesel. I've had it tested independently and it has come back as normal diesel— Customs just won't listen."
When his tractor was returned on the back of a lowloader it had been "completely pulled apart".
Meanwhile Customs officers had visited each of the sites where Tolley's truck had been filled and subsequently removed 600,000 litres of paraffin/heating fuel from the Poplar 2000 site at Lymm services at J20 of the M6. It was closed on 14 September while Customs removed the fuel and for the next three days while the tanks were purged.
A spokesman for Lymm Services says: We have no responsibility for, nor influence, in the origin of the fuel. Our role was merely as stock holder. The fuel was delivered to the site by a third party."
Tolley says the incident will cost him about £1,000 in lost time.