Assumed guilt
The Catch 22 is simple. Smokers in the UK pay exorbitant taxes on tobacco. With prices on the continent two thirds cheaper, it is only a matter of time before many smokers will find themselves in possession of tobacco from abroad. It can only be brought into the UK if duty is paid or if it is for personal use, to protect the significant tax revenues from tobacco products. But if a smoker has ever paid for foreign tobacco or given someone money to buy it for them abroad, they will have permanently tainted their chances of convincing the Courts and the Commissioners that their tobacco was for personal use. The balance of probabilities weighs so heavily in favour of the Commissioners that hapless cross- Channel shoppers seem guilty until proven innocent, a view supported by Richard Ashworth, Conservative Member of the European Parliament for the south-east of England. With regards to socioeconomics, the cost of living in the United Kingdom is very high, and where there is demand there will be contraband. Geography and geopolitics have conspired to create, just across the Channel, the supply to satisfy the demand for cheap tobacco. But as well as the legitimate purchasers, there are many illegitimate ones, and the proverb about one bad apple spoiling the whole barrel becomes applicable.

Illegal seizure
People who cannot afford the UK’s tobacco prices are similarly unable to afford the legal help to challenge a government-backed army of lawyers. Thus, the illegal confiscation by Customs and Excise of goods bought for personal use becomes de facto legal forfeiture when people cannot afford to contest decisions and retain their legitimately acquired goods. Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise publishes information about the revenue lost to smuggling every year. For the period from 2005 to 2006, approximately 18% of the market share of cigarettes and approximately 62% of rolling tobacco was declared to be illegitimate, and to be worth nearly £3.2 billion. These figures clearly demonstrate the significance of the tobacco revenue to the Treasury. It is, therefore, not surprising that it casts a very wide, seemingly indiscriminate, net when searching for smuggled goods. But the net is so wide that it catches everyone, not just the criminals. The right of citizens to buy as much tobacco as they want so long as it is for personal use is hardly treated like a right. Brooke LJ describes a scene at the docks where all Hoverspeed passengers who have purchased tobacco or alcohol are ‘made to feel like criminals’. This behaviour flies in the face of EU law duly sanctioned by Parliament in the Human Rights Act 1998, and by the Treaty on European Union. The right to property and the freedom of movement of goods are far from respected. These are not qualified rights, they are simply ignored rights.

Injustice
Hoverspeed chastises HM Customs and Excise for draconian techniques. But the reality remains that rights guaranteed by the UK Parliament are being denied to its citizens. This injustice is perpetrated in the fight to retain tax revenues. Sadly, some people caught to boost Customs statistics are declared guilty because they cannot afford to fight. The situation is one Parliament should consider closely in light of our treaty obligations, or else this Catch 22

Jimmy Kapches is in the final year of a Law LLB