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CUSTOMS AND EXCISE	FINANCE BILL 2000
	CLAUSE 26

CLAUSE 26 : POWER TO SEARCH ARTICLES

SUMMARY

1. This clause empowers Customs officers to require a search of articles people have with them where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they also have with them alcohol and tobacco products on which duty is due. Such people and articles may be detained long enough for this purpose. This will enable Customs to more effectively tackle the growth in people carrying smuggled goods on foot and hawking them from pub to club.

DETAILS OF THE CLAUSE

2. Subsection (1) provides that, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that someone in the United Kingdom has with them or where they are applicable goods, a Customs officer may require them to permit a search of any articles they have with them or at that place. A person may be detained for this purpose. Under section 1(1) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, "officer" does not include a police officer, coastguard or other person empowered under section 163 of that Act .

3. The term ‘has with him, or at the place where he is,’ is intended to cover a number of scenarios such as the following :

• where an officer attends a depository and the suspect is in attendance, the power would enable the officer to require the suspect to allow his depository box to be searched. However, the power could not be used in the absence of the suspect to get the owner of the depository to force open a depositor’s box for Customs;

• where the suspect has brought something with them, either at that time or has brought something with them previously and is storing it e.g. at their place of employment in a locker/office. (Where a suspect operates from within his place of employment customs normally enter that place with the consent of the employer.);

• where someone else has brought something to the suspect, before the suspect arrived e.g. an accomplice who has delivered unmarked boxes or sacks to a market stall;

• where someone else brought something to the suspect after the suspect arrived (whether under a prior arrangement or a chance transaction) e.g. the handing over of contraband from the smuggler to the hawker ;

• at places to which the public have ready access, or has access on the payment of an entry fee e.g. at a car boot fair which might be held at a racetrack and where smuggled goods are likely to be stored under stalls rather than simply carried;

 

• at the frontier.

 

4. This subsection complements existing Customs powers to search goods being transported by vehicle or vessel. However, it was not intended to apply to the small quantities of goods that can be hidden, for example, in a person’s hat or the pockets or lining of his outer-garments. This new power does not authorise the search of a person.

5. Customs already have the power to search persons at ports ,

airports and certain other locations and at any other place when the person is under arrest. There are situations where officers may wish to search articles or detain a person without necessarily arresting them e.g. someone acting suspiciously on a street corner with a suitcase where some kind of trading activity has been taking place; or something contained in bin liners under a table at a market/car boot sale which looks suspiciously like tobacco goods. The power to detain articles which the suspect has with him prevents the suspect’s accomplice removing the articles from the scene (assuming they cannot be detained as well).

6. Subsection (2) provides that the new power applies in respect of alcoholic liquor and tobacco products that are chargeable with excise duty and are liable to forfeiture (as will often be the case when duty is due but unpaid). Many people have with them tobacco products or alcoholic liquors on which excise duty has not been paid but which are not liable to forfeiture (for example 2000 cigarettes bought duty free by a passenger for his own use on a flight from New York to London). The new power will not apply to such goods. However, it will apply to

smuggled or illicit alcohol and tobacco goods from outside the UK and to those who sell them without accounting for the duty.

7. Subsection (3) confirms that the detention of a person under the new power will not prevent that person’s subsequent detention under section 24(1) of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995.

BACKGROUND

8. This change in the law shows the Government’s continuing commitment to tackling the smuggling and sale of illicit alcohol and tobacco goods. It will play an important role in tackling those who sell to the public at bootfairs and markets and trade in hawking goods from pub to club.

9. The need for action is simple. Smuggling is not a victimless crime. Honest shopkeepers are being undercut and driven out of business. It also costs about £2.5 billion in tobacco taxes and £215 million in alcohol taxes; this money could substantially increase funding to schools and hospitals.

10. There is also evidence that smugglers sell to under age smokers and drinkers. Additionally, customers of smugglers do not always know what they are buying. Last year Customs seized two large loads of methylated spirits packaged as whiskey and vodka. Customs are currently seizing large shipments of counterfeit cigarettes - usually with higher tar levels than legitimate brands.

11. The power will enable Customs to search articles across the United Kingdom, up to and including the frontier. This brings the law for foot travellers arriving in the United Kingdom in line with that for those who travel by vehicle.

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