HMRC v M
Mrs M had arranged a trip with her children to Dubai and had taken £20,000 cash and spending money. She was stopped at Manchester airport and the cash was seized on the basis that it was recoverable property. There had been some suggestion that Mrs M's husband had evaded excise duty on cigarettes and alcohol some years earlier and therefore, customs officers assumed that the cash seized was recoverable as it was related to the earlier criminality.
Although the customs officers initial application for detention was successful, on the basis that they needed a further period to investigate their claims, the cash was eventually returned as the claims being made by the customs were extremely tenuous and could not be supported.
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