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Stowaway fine verdict soon

1st November 2001
Page 7
Page 7, 1st November 2001 — Stowaway fine verdict soon
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by Lucia Cockcroft A High Court judge has this week postponed his verdict on the action brought by hauliers and drivers over the Home Office civil penalties system.

At the end of the two-week hearing last Friday, Mr Justice Sullivan requested a paper outlining the main arguments from lawyers acting for the two parties. He said that this was not intended to provoke further debate, but might serve as a means to narrow the gulf in the parties' line of argument. It would also help to establish any areas of agreement.

As previously reported, some 50 domestic and international hauliers and drivers have challenged the UK government's controversial £2,000a-head stowaway fines (CM 25-31 October I.

Richard Gordon QC, representing a group of hauliers, criticised the regime as "unjust and disproportionate". He insisted: "The larger the fine, the more important it is for the process to be commensurately fair. This is a dracon ian penalty with a potentially ruinous effect."

But the Home Office maintained that the fines were proportionate to the offence. It claimed that the burden on the UK taxpayer, the danger to immigrants and drivers, and the undermining of UK immigration control are major justifications for the penalties, Gerald Barling QC, defending, told the judge that the criticism of the system was "lacking in substance" and pointed out that it had been effective in achieving its aims.

"Although this is a tough regime, where people can be requested to pay huge sums, this must be weighed against the importance of the legislation," he emphasised.

"The hauliers are, literally and metaphorically, a vehicle for bringing thousands of clandestine immigrants into the UK," Barling concluded.


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