Swoop ... a customs officer unloads cigarettes
from the boot of an impounded car at Dover

By ANDY WILKS

HUNDREDS of innocent trippers yesterday told The Sun how Customs bullies have ruined their lives.

Some saw their businesses go bust because of the crackdown on cross-Channel booze cruise day-trippers stocking up with cheap drink and cigs.

Others had their cars seized after the ferry jaunts — then SOLD without them being told.

There was massive support for The Sun’s Hands Off Our Booze Cruises campaign — and last night Treasury chiefs showed the first signs of a climbdown.

Customs officers were branded “thieves in uniform” yesterday by a taxi driver whose cab was seized and sold after a cross-Channel trip to buy cheap booze and tobacco.

Phil Kristofferson, 57, said: “I was out of work for about ten weeks because I couldn’t afford to buy another car.

“In the end I bit the bullet and went further into debt to get one.”

Phil was among thousands of readers who phoned to support The Sun’s Hands Off Our Booze Cruises crusade over the weekend.

He and a friend went to France to stock up on drink and baccy.

There is no legal limit to the amount they could have brought back for their own use.

But all they bought was ten kilos of tobacco, eight cases of lager and four bottles of spirits.

Yet they were stopped, searched and their goods impounded — along with the 18-month-old Peugeot 406.

It was later sold at auction without Phil knowing — and while he was appealing against confiscation.

The proceeds of such sales go straight into Chancellor Gordon Brown’s Treasury coffers.

Phil, of Guildford, Surrey, said: “When I came back it was like you were entering an Eastern European country, with Customs and Excise men in their jackboots.

“The problem is the Government don’t want people shopping abroad, they want the tax for themselves.”

Customs chiefs, who have set their own arbitrary booze and fag “allowances”, say they are clamping down on people smuggling huge amounts to sell on the black market.

An August High Court ruling outlawed random searches and said trippers did not have to prove items they bought were for personal use.

Yet Customs jobsworths have ignored the decision and are still wrecking people’s lives with their heavy-handed tactics.

Phil, who was stopped at Coquelles, France, said: “They just stick two fingers up to the High Court judgment.”

Dad-of-three Nick Parkin’s business was driven to the wall after he treated staff to a day trip.

Nick, 33, of Howden, East Yorks, ran an electrical contract firm and took eight staff in three company VW Transporter vans to France at the end of a job in London.

They brought back 20 kilos of tobacco each and 20 crates of lager between them, but were stopped at Coquelles by British Customs.

He said: “They said they had reason to believe it wasn’t for personal use and confiscated all three vans, which were loaded up with work equipment.

“It broke me. My business went under. We couldn’t meet demand because we didn’t have the vans.

Fuming ... Phil lost his cab

“It’s had a big effect on my family financially. We’ve used all our savings to get back on our feet and it’s left me in debt. I’m down about £35,000 because of this.”

Disabled James Waldren, 33, was forced to take a £250 taxi journey from Dover to his home in Wakefield, West Yorks, after his car was seized in February last year.

He, his sister and brother-in-law each bought a half box of tobacco, which Customs officers approved.

But when officials spotted two pouches in his glove compartment they decided to impound the motor.

Mr Waldren said: “It was absolutely crazy. I’m in a wheelchair and the only way I could get home at 3am in the morning was by taxi, which cost me £250.

“They said that the amount of tobacco we had was fine, but because I had two pouches in my glove compartment they said that was concealing. The taxi driver said to me, ‘You’re not the first’.” Shanta Jones, 34, lost her new Vauxhall Corsa when her husband and two pals went on a booze run to Belgium in August last year.

The group returned with 4,000 cigarettes and a bottle of whisky.

She lost her appeal against the confiscation but then found out the car had been sold before the outcome of the appeal.

Mum-of-two Shanta, of Bagillt, North Wales, said: “The Customs report on me made me sound a lying scumbag.

“How can they call me a smuggler when I didn’t even leave the house? My husband took my car because it’s cheaper on fuel than his.”

The first that some booze cruisers know of their cars being disposed of by Customs is when they are contacted by DVLA licensing clerks.

Roy Smyth, 56, from Ipswich, was one of many who were still going through the appeal procedure when officials sold his vehicle.

He was stopped at Dover in March last year with four kilos of tobacco. He said: “I wasn’t smuggling the stuff. But they wouldn’t listen to a word I said. I then started on the appeal — which I’m still going through — and found out that they have already sold my car.

“They didn’t even have the guts to tell me but the DVLA got in touch about it. It’s disgusting.”

Norman Price, 77, of Bournemouth, Dorset, said his wife was reduced to tears by Poole Customs.

He said: “I only had a kilo of tobacco but they questioned us for three hours and left my wife crying. We were treated terribly.”

John Allen, 53, from Storrington, West Sussex, had his car taken when Customs swooped on his home — a week after a trip to France.

He went to the Continent from Dover on October 5 and was shocked when officers turned up on his doorstep.

He said: “They asked if they could search my house and I said, ‘Of course, I’ve nothing to hide’.

“They came in and took four kilos of tobacco and cigarettes which were for my own consumption. Then they took my car too.

“I was horrified. This was a week after I had been to France.

“They interrogated me for 2½ hours, watched me smoke 20 cigarettes and then left me with one.

“I’ve had to take out credit so I can buy another car.”

Furious Phil Shergold’s car was also taken and sold as he appealed. The civil servant, 43, was returning to Dover from Calais last October.

He had loaded his Ford Orion with 200 50gm pouches of Golden Virginia, cost £540, and £160 worth of other goods including 800 Lambert and Butler cigarettes, 100 cigarillos and a few bottles of booze.

Customs officers accused him of buying the tobacco to sell — and sneered: “There’s no way you can afford all this on what you earn.”

Phil, of Shrewton, Wilts, lodged a lengthy appeal but his car was sold within ten weeks. He said: “It’s disgraceful how Customs have taken the law into their own hands. It’s a scandal.”

A shameful site

Compound ... seized vehicles

By DUNCAN LARCOMBE

THIS is the compound where vehicles seized by the Customs bullies wait to be sold on or crushed.

From above, the 3½-acre site looks like a vast car park.

But at ground level, 9ft steel fences topped with razor wire, pacing security guards and CCTV give away its true purpose.

Vehicles — from BMWs and Range Rovers to mobile homes — pack the pound, four miles north of Dover. Yesterday, more than 900 cars and 100 lorries stood rusting there. Some were seized from criminals trying to sneak drugs or immigrants into Britain.

But many others are ordinary vehicles belonging to ordinary day-trippers unlucky enough to have been branded smugglers.

Take notice ... warning sent
out in car tax reminders

Leaflets warning folk of a “tougher seizure policy” have been sent out with tax disc renewal notices over the past year. Protesters say 20,000 have been confiscated in the past two years and taken to the site. They are stripped of booze and cigarettes in a big green warehouse.

It also houses a crusher which takes seconds to smash a saloon into a cube of crumpled metal.

A man working nearby said: “Cars with drugs in them go to the crusher and ones with drink and fags wait to be resold to raise money for the Government.

“It’s trippers they stamp hard on. There’s no doubt many cars should never have come here.”