'Too easy' Irish border hop led to £4000 fine
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• A lorry driver who was said to be earning £25 a week was given 16 years to pay off fines totalling £4000, when he appeared before Bolton magistrates' court last week. Mr Kenneth Higson pleaded guilty to four summonses of dealing with pharmaceutical products on which customs duty had not been paid. He was told to pay off the fines at £5 a week. Mr Malcolm Brown, of Molyneux Road, Westhoughton, near Bolton, also pleaded guilty to one similar offence with Higson and was fined £1000. He was given 14 days to pay.
Mr P. Brewer, prosecuting, said both the men admitted they had been buying the products in the Irish Republic and bridging them back into Britain. Mr Higson had sold them to wholesalers in London, Manchester and Blackburn.
Mr B. Atherton, defending, said the total profit for the two men had been in the region of £1000 over a threeor four-month period. Mr Higson had gone to Ireland to get some pharmaceutical goods which were a lot cheaper there. The two men had arrived at Newry Customs Post on the Irish border at 5pm, found it closed and drove through unchallenged. It was so easy that they were tempted to do it again.