Konstantin Darscht v Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs

Facts

The appellant, Konstantin Darscht, was an owner-driver of a tractor unit and trailer who worked for a company called Seifert Logistics. On 4 July 2005 he collected loads at Schalchen in Austria, Ulm and Oberkirch, loading pallets himself with a pump truck at the first and third of those places, while a forklift driver handled the loading at Ulm. He drove on to Luxembourg, where he took a rest period between 11.00pm and 7.30am during which he left the unsealed trailer in a motorway parking area and went off with a woman he later admitted was a prostitute. On 5 July 2005 he was stopped at Dover Eastern Docks, where officers found forty-six pallets in the trailer, five of which contained 799,800 cigarettes, marked "Commodity Name Meat Grinder", on which £120,161.95 of excise duty was unpaid. The vehicle and trailer were seized and Mr Darscht was arrested and interviewed. He did not challenge the legality of the seizure in condemnation proceedings but asked on 8 July 2005 for restoration. That refusal was upheld on review by Mr G Morgan on 7 October 2005, and Mr Darscht appealed to the tribunal.