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Three strikes and truck's lost
Page 16
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Operator could lose his truck after cigarettes are seized. David Harris reports.
A WILTSHIRE haulier faces the loss of one of his trucks after large quantities of cigarettes were seized by customs in three separate incidents.
The same driver was in the vehicle on each occasion when customs officers seized a total of 16,400 cigarettes and 6.25kg of tobacco. On one occasion the truck was seized, but restored on the payment of £1,788 in duty.
However, when the same vehicle was found to have 3,200 cigarettes on board on 2 December, customs regarded it as the third occasion on which smuggled goods had been found and both cigarettes and truck were confiscated. On each occasion the truck was stopped at Poole,Dorset.
Alan Wicks, managing director of Westbury-based ABW International, says he is dismayed because he knew nothing about the smuggling of cigarettes and had repeatedly warned his drivers not to carry them.
Now Wicks has to appeal against the customs decision not to return the vehicle.. As he runs only three trucks, the impounded vehicle represents a third of his fleet.
In a letter to Wicks, a customs representative says that when the cigarettes were found the driver had told customs officers that "they were intended as Christmas presents".
The letter continues: "Given [the driver's] salary and the expense outlaid to purchase these goods, I do not believe this to be a true statement of his intentions."
Wicks, who says the driver is no longer working with him, argues it is unfair that he should lose his truck, a Scania 420, when he was not in any way involved with buying or importing the cigarettes.