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Customs' tactics damage hauliers, not smugglers
Page 6
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• by Cliff Caswell Organised gangs smuggling alcohol and tobacco are making a mockery of Customs' powers to seize trucks found to be carrying contraband goods.
Haulage professionals believe that confiscation does not target those who are actually bringing in the illegal goods. They also believe that the government's emphasis on punishing hauliers rather than drivers is making it easy for offenders to move around the industry—and that the problem is being compounded by the driver crisis.
Mike Freeman, Head of International Affairs at the Road Haulage Association, says: "The industry is so short of drivers that an employee who is dismissed for smuggling can move on somewhere else and do it all over again. Some drivers are being used by organised gangs; they could smuggle dozens of times before they get caught.
-If a driver who has been caught before gets a job with another firm the company will not be able to get their vehicle back at all if he gets caught again."
Freeman was speaking as the RHA continued to make representations on behalf of Bristol-based Westfield International Transport. One of the firm's trucks was seized when a driver attempted to bring 500kg of tobacco into the UK and the MAN tractor has been held since August, even though the driver has pointed out that his employer was not at fault (see above, right).
The company has been ordered to pay £23,000 to get its truck back.
Freeman says: "I just want to get some common sense from the Customs policy. Their enforcement should be directed towards those who actually commit the offence. I have written to them and I have been wading for an answer for the past three weeks—we want a lot more openness from Customs about these issues."
A Customs spokeswoman says co tion is designed to disrupt the import gal goods into the UK, but she stress' the effect on hauliers is being mon "We have a clear and robust policy. Ho it is in our interest to constantly revii effect it is having on the haulage indus1 do prosecute drivers from time to tin if people lose their goods, then the think twice before doing it again."