UK Customs
- 8 September 2011 19:31125461Dose any one know if this is true, As from the first of October people traveling from the EU will only be allowed to bring in two packs of tobacco or 400 Cigs per person.
- 8 September 2011 19:37125462first i have heard alan, there would have been more information in the media had it been true.
- 8 September 2011 19:59125466Not heard that one, can't see it myself. If that ever does happen then the bootlegging will be really back in business with all the hassle that caused Dover!Audere est facere.
- 8 September 2011 20:18125469There are changes coming in Alan. I have written a piece for next Thursday explaining it
- 8 September 2011 20:22125470I doubt if the bootleggers will be back the way the prices for cigs are rising on the continent.beer the food of the gods
- 8 September 2011 20:28125473Still money to be made, and the market for selling will become bigger if people can not legally buy for personal use. What happened to the free European market?Audere est facere.
- 8 September 2011 20:29125474indeed, there is so little price differential i cannot see any point in lowering the limit.
the real threat would be from makeshift factories turning out counterfeit ones. - 8 September 2011 20:37125476Hand rolling tobacco from Belgium is still brought back in huge quantities by some chancers who sell it on.Audere est facere.
- Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,709
8 September 2011 21:24125481This is the current guidance on the HMRC web site
[http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriving/arrivingeu.htmURL][/URL]
Which is fine except they operate an advisory limits at points of entry that is as follows
3,200 cigarettes
200 cigars
400 cigarillos
3 kilograms of tobacco
110 litres of beer
90 litres of wine
10 litres of spirits
20 litres of fortified wine (for example port or sherry)
Beyond these amounts they will give you a seriously hard time
There do appear to be changes to the Duty Free allowances for the year from April and no doubt these will be changed again next April
http://www.taxfreetravel.com/UK%20duty%20free%20allowances"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi - 8 September 2011 21:34125483there is always confusion about duty paid and duty free.
the post from ross is about the former, alan is saying that these will be reduced drastically.
will be interesting to read the article from kathy next week. - Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,709
8 September 2011 21:51125488Howard under EU law you can bring in any quantity of duty paid goods from an EU country provided they are for your own use and you can carry them - the UKBA guidance is just that guidance any attempt to curtail free movement of goods would be a breach of EU law"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
9 September 2011 06:08125499alan,what are you defining on the tobacco,are saying two [2] 50 gram pouches or two [2] packs of ten. - 9 September 2011 17:11125621Two packs of Ten brain
- Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
9 September 2011 19:05125633alan are you having a dim jim day,spelling my name wrong again.if you two packs,say two cartons instead ok buddy.
- 9 September 2011 19:45125653Brian Brian Brian Brian there i got it right two pkts of ten that is 20 pouches in all do i make myself clear Sir and yes i was having a dim day in fact every day is getting dimmer. some of us older people function a little slower now days Well I do.
- 9 September 2011 19:59125654i think i know what you are saying alan, one kilo of hand rolling tobacco.
- 9 September 2011 20:54125661I think a limit should be set of fixed amount so you can mix and match within those limits, guide lines are fine but some people will always test it and try to bring in more if we had a limit then we would know were we stand and should we go over that limit then we deserve what we get.
- 9 September 2011 21:15125665The other thing we have noticed that as frequent travelers to the Battlefields some times twice a month we tend to get pulled more than most we don't buy every time we go over maybe we buy twice a year and always only what we are allowed.But we get treated like Criminals and are asked if we know the limits but as soon as they know we have not brought anything they lose interest and send us on are way, if there was a limit this would end. and maybe these guide lines are there to justify there jobs as they know people will break them keeping them in work. Two weeks ago 4 of us went over for a day on the Battlefields and as we had not brought any goods since last November we brought are limit and as we were in line at the store and the receipts were only 1 to 2min apart they tried to say we had brought a bulk buy and yet it was for each one of us even when you are being honest and playing by the rules you still get treated like a Criminal.
- 11 September 2011 08:25125842Alan, I think the reason you get stopped so often is because you DO travel quite a lot by the sounds of it. Even if you don't buy anything I guess they keep track of vehicles and names an how often they go across, particulary if it is a one day trip. I get stopped by them everytime I go across but it's something we just have to deal with. To be fair it really does not bother me, we get a lot more hassle at an airport with security and queues. I think we're quite lucky to be able to travel so quickly out the country this way. As for being treated like a criminal, I find every customs officer i meet has a different way of approaching you but the subjects always the same
Keeps politics to myself - Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
11 September 2011 08:42125846having been involved in a couty court case involving the customs and some of our friends evading every law possible i got to see the inside of the good and bad practices of the customs
they dont deal with the nicest of people some of the time,
at the end of the day they are doing a job under other outside pressures like that when the bootlegging was at its strongest and hoverspeed advoided customs and delivered to the house.
my biggest issue with customs was the way i was dealt with as a witness
going to county court is in itself daunting, and the thought of having to take the stand.
but exactly one year after the event a customs official came to me for a statement oncethey had staked out his house and he returned home after a year!!
also then in court, no one from customs made me feel welcome, came to advise me, helped me etc
i was left in the public area on my own with big arms of the family being done in the court!!
i went and spoke to some customs officers in anther case who then thought i was part of it all lol
then eventually a dover customs officer whom i knew from football years ago and was involved in my case came to see me.
the geezer in the case was pleading not guilty, and right up to the wire the two barristers were negotiating/talking/bartering quite an insight.
then just as we were about to go into the court thebarrister got word the geezer had just accepted the customs view and was going to plead guilty,
so we sat throuygh the proceedings quite interesting.
what i forgot to say was the first day everyone turned up i had to have 2 days off work and the polce in a city up north hadnt tiold the court that the geezer had been taken to hospital so couldnt attend, the judge/magistrate was not amused and realy ripped into the police quite rightly to.ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS