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Permits loophole lets in foreigners
Page 4
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by CM reporter
FOREIGN HAULIERS can bring their loaded trucks into Britain illegally without any fear of being caught—and that's official!
For it was revealed this week by the Department of Environment that Continental operators' permits are not being checked when they land at UK ports. That means that they can either chance not having a permit at all or that they can re-use a single-trip permit time after time, This news came to light after a CM probe into allegations by Mr Marcus Fox, MP, Tory Party vice-chairman.
He claimed (CM last week) that hauliers from abroad were coming into Britain and their permits were not being stamped to show that they had been used. "We're daft ", he told a business luncheon at the RHA Tipping Convention, "and it is time this racket was exposed."
Mr Fox believed that the loophole had developed because of a "Who does what ? " dispute between the Customs and Excise and the DoE.
And although the CM investigation could find no evidence of any dispute there was certainly a massive muddle, with the left hand not appearing to know what the right hand was doing.
Mr Charles Holt, clerk to the South Eastern traffic area, said that as he understood the situation the responsibility for stamping the permits lay with the Customs and Excise.
"Our people cannot be at the ports all day or everyday although we do carry out spot checks on British hauliers."
But when CM contacted Customs and Excise a spokesman said that it was the DoE vehicle examiners' responsibility.
Back to the DoE, who then revealed that permits were definitely not being stamped. And an explanation was given as to why not.
The reason why
"We found that in the past foreign hauliers had never used their full quota of permits and so checking was not terribly vital. But more than a ypar ago we found that the quota was being used and something had to be done.
"The DoE couldn't check permits so the job was handed over to the Customs. But it seems to have fallen by the wayside. 'Now the Customs have accepted their responsibility and will be doing the job in due course."
Over to the Customs and Excise, and this time we contacted an inside source and things got in even more of a muddle. For he insisted that the Customs men are stamping the permits of French, German and Italian hauliers.
However, he admitted that for hauliers of other countries no check was made.
An RHA spokesman commented: "If this is going on our members will be very indignant."
Mr Marcus Fox commented : "No wonder our EEC partners aren't particularly worried about pushing up the permit levels. They can already come here as often as they like."