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Customs coughs up £4,000 A HAULIER in Northern Ireland has
Page 37
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been paid nearly £4,000 compensation by Customs & Excise after it wrongly seized his vehicle,suspecting duty evasion on fuel carried in allegedly non-standard tanks.
Last month a government watchbody, the Adjudicator's Office, ruled that Customs "did not act reasonably" after its refusal to compensate the haulier for the cost of inspecting the vehicle after recovery and for solicitor's fees incurred after 13 September 2002, the day the vehicle was returned. The compensation paid to McG uigari Transport of Killylea,CoArmagh includes £1,377 loss of earnings for the 10 days the vehicle was held; £1,757 reimbursement of solicitor's fees; £631.60 for repairs and valeting of the cab and other sums covering legal fees; worry and distress and phone calls. However, Sean McGuigan, owner of the three-truck operation,plans to take the case to the Parliamen tary Ombudsman, believing that he is still out of pocket on his original claim of f5,615,arising from an incident on 3 September 2002 when his MAN F2000 was stopped on the Caledon to Eglish road.The vehicle was held for 10 days, during which time damage was caused to the cab interior including the removal of a CB radio and remote control and, McGuigan says. the truck was driven by Customs with its suspension airbags cleflated.This required a thorough mechanical check up when the vehicle was recovered, "I was treated very shabbily," says McGuigan. "I could not believe that a Customs officer would just take the vehicle."
Customs has admitted that the vehicle should not have been seized but simply examined and returried."The cab was messed about inside,the CB was removed and its wires were all over the place," says Teresa McGuigan, Sean McGuigan's wife and partner in the business. Initially, McGuigan's solicitor took the case to the regional complaints officer for Customs & Excise in Belfast, who confirmed in a letter dated 25 October 2002 that a CB radio and speaker were removed from the vehicle and compensation would be offered. In an earlier letter (17 September 2002) the officer admitted that"our officers have not acted as professionally as the department would expect... and a review of our case handling systems will he undertaken-. A fuel audit carried out by Customs accepted that McGuigan Transport owed no duty, but the company was still ordered to remove nonstandard tanks from the MAN. Subsequently, Customs has been unable to explain to the RHA what it means by 'non-standard' tanks. Sean McGuigan has since sold the vehicle, tanks included. The Adjudicator's Office told CM it could not comment on the case without the complainant's written permission. •