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Customs stops business
Page 10
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by Ian Wylie • The wife of an ownerdriver who is awaiting trial on drugs charges has accused customs red tape of driving her family towards bankruptcy.
Father-of-three Robert McKinlay from Prestwick, Ayrshire was returning from Germany in May with a load of Nissan car parts when he was arrested at Dover after customs officers found a bag containing 15kg of heroin inside his curtainsider.
McKinlay is now in Canterbury prison. Two bail applications have been rejected and he has been given a provisional trial date of 28 October.
His wife and business partner Susan says she has contract work to fulfil but clainiis that customs officers are making it impossible for her to buy another truck to carry out the work.
Customs has returned the McKinlays' truck to the finance company, but has retained the partnership's accounts. Susan McKinlay says customs has also refused to give her copies of the accounts to enable her to buy back the truck—she has been forced to sell some of the family's belongings to make ends meet.
The couple's solicitor, Barry Spanger, says customs bureaucracy is solely to blame. "Mrs McKinlay hasn't been charged with anything, yet she and her children are being made to suffer," he says.
"Even if the drugs charges are dismissed, irreparable damage will have been done to the couple's business."
Spanger says he wrote to customs' legal department several weeks ago requesting copies of the McKimlays' accounts. But the officer working on the investigation claims she has not yet received the letter and cannot act until formally instructed by her department.