Matthew Steven Whatnell v Commissioners of Customs and Excise

Facts

The appellant, Mr Matthew Steven Whatnell, had moved to Spain with his wife and three children and lived there for some three months before the marriage broke down and the family decided to return to England. Shortly before returning, he and his wife purchased a large quantity of cigarettes in Spain — variously described in the appeal as 40,000 or 37,600 cigarettes — for which they paid many thousands of pounds. Rather than carry the cigarettes home themselves, they flew back independently and engaged a courier, whose telephone number the appellant said he had found in a Spanish newspaper, to bring three boxes of cigarettes into the United Kingdom. The boxes were wrapped in children's cartoon wrapping paper and covered in plastic. On 19 August 2001 an officer of the Commissioners stopped the courier, Mr Paul Anthony Langlands, at the Eastern Docks car terminal at Dover; Mr Langlands declared some excise goods but said he had no further cigarettes, and the officer then found the boxes and seized 40,000 cigarettes along with tobacco, beer, spirits, wine and the vehicle. Restoration was refused by letter, and on review that refusal was confirmed by letter dated 30 January 2002. The appellant appealed to the tribunal.