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Customs car seizures: "British consumers getting a raw deal"
October 17, 2002 12:00 AM
Yorkshire & the Humber Lib Dem Euro MP today met with Frits Bolkestein, the EU Commissioner responsible for the Internal Market, to raise the concerns of local people who have had their good and vehicles seized by Customs.
Commissioner Frits Bolkestein reaffirmed his commitment to calling a halt on British Customs' zero tolerance policy of seizing the cars of cross channel travellers who legitimately bring in cheap alcohol and tobacco from the continent for their own use.
Speaking at the European Liberal Democrat conference in Bath, Commissioner Bolkestein said:
"The European Commission takes a dim view of the British government's policy. We think British consumers are getting a raw deal. While it is understandable that customs and excise want to stop smuggling, people have a right to travel across borders with purchases of alcohol and cigarettes for personal use. As the High Court has said, the burden of proof should be on customs and excise that such purchases are not for personal use."
In her speech to conference delegates, Diana Wallis, local liberal Democrat Euro MP and internal market spokeswoman, said:
"I want my own constituents in Yorkshire & the Humber to get the full benefit of the EU internal market. But nobody told them that when they came back from the continent with a few cigarettes or bottles of booze over the EU guidelines for their own personal use that overzealous customs officers would confiscate their car, sending them home on foot and their car for scrap metal."
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