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joins calls for stowawa) fines to be refunded now!
Page 4
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The Right Hon David Blunkett MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department, The Home Office, 50, Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H OAT.
16 December 2002.
Dear Home Secretary,
As the leading weekly magazine for road hauliers, Commercial Motor welcomes and applauds the Home Office's decision to drop its attempts to collect the Liam of fixed rate fines previously imposed on international operators found with stowaways on their vehicles when entering the UK.
Along with all law-abiding operators CM has long argued that the majority of hauliers caught with illegal immigrants on their vehicles are hapless victims of a much wider problem. The solution to that problem, in the short-term, has always been to deliver tougher security on the French side of the Channel and, in parallel with that provision, the closure of the Sangatte refugee centre.
In light of the Home Office's decision to abandon attempts to claim the outstanding LI2111 of fines, surely this presents an undeniable precedent. Namely, that if it is now right NOT to pursue innocent operators for being caught with stowaways on their vehicles, then those open ators who have been fined and have paid such fines must now be entitled to a full refund.
Like you, we deplore the activities of a small minority of international operators and HGV drivers who have deliberately smuggled illegal immigrants into the UK for financial gain. However, it must be accepted that the vast majority of 1.1K-based international hauliers have been unwitting carriers of stowaways, despite conducting what checks can realistically be made, due to the less-than-comprehensive security in Continental ports and truckstops in dose proximity to those ports.
In those cases where UK operators have taken all possible steps to prevent stowaways gaining access to their vehicles, if they are subsequently found to have them on board they must be considered innocent of any deliberate involvement. And on that basis fines are not only inappropriate but totally unjust. According to figures from the Freight Transport Association the level of stowaway fines paid to date by international operators to HM Government is Lam. In light of the Home Office's decision not to pursue the collection of the outstanding L12M penalty fines surely it is now only right to expect a large proportion of that L.2111 to be repaid to those British operators who are innocent of crime.
Surely it is now time to give them back their money.
Yours sincerely, Brian Weatherley, Editor in Chief.