Mr Alan & Mrs Veronica Griffiths v Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs

Facts

Mr Alan Griffiths and his wife, Mrs Veronica Jean Griffiths, returned to the United Kingdom from Spain on 2 March 2004 bringing with them 14,620 cigarettes and 2 kilos of hand rolling tobacco. As travellers between European Union states, they were entitled under Community law to import excise goods duty paid elsewhere in the Community provided the goods were for their own use, but their importation of cigarettes substantially exceeded the guideline quantities HMRC accept as consistent with own use — one kilo of tobacco and 3,000 cigarettes per person. Stopped by an officer at Birmingham Airport, they were unable to satisfy him that the products were for their own use, and he seized them as liable to forfeiture. They challenged the seizure, which obliged HMRC to bring condemnation proceedings in the Solihull Magistrates' Court, and they also appealed to the tribunal against a review decision refusing restoration. On 27 October 2004 the magistrates condemned the goods as forfeit, holding that they had been validly seized as held for a commercial purpose. At a tribunal hearing on 23 March 2005, at which HMRC did not appear and of which the condemnation appears not to have been mentioned, the appeal was allowed on the footing that the burden of proof had been misapplied and a further review was directed. That review was again adverse, and the present appeal followed.