Customs When Back To The UK

[Frances999]

wee have notied they tend to pick on the single people.

We have noticed this too. At the end of the day, I think they are very aware that many families go over the limit. I think they are more bothered by the people who have gone out to buy items clearly with the intention of re-sale in the UK.

 

[alisonbestford]

A few years ago we arrived back from Orlando with about 500 g of tobacco over the limit.

I made DH (a disgraceful 60-70 a day smoker) declare them at customs and the customs officer thanked him before sending us on our way without paying extra

 

[mikki.young]

We may not agree with the law (I certainly think it is a ludicrous amount as a limit and am not entirely sure I believe the government when they blame the EU) but it is the law. If we don't follow it knowingly then we are breaking the law whether or not we get stopped. I agree they seem to hardly ever stop people going through green but if more folks went through the red channel then maybe the customs officers would also start prressing for the limits to be changed.

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
The limit is being raised to £340 from 1st January 2007 (although the Chancellor requested £1000) Another example of our Country being run by Europe..!!

Mick.

 

[patdavies]

We may not agree with the law (I certainly think it is a ludicrous amount as a limit and am not entirely sure I believe the government when they blame the EU) but it is the law.

It is definitely down to the EU.

There is free movement between EU countries and people between EU countries. If one member (us) was to increase the limit, then that is effectively increasing the limit for the whole EU, as all that would happen is that people would import the higher limit into UK and then freely move it to their own country - whatever limit that country has, it cannot be applied to movement between member states.

 

[dee slack]

The limit is being raised to £340 from 1st January 2007 (although the Chancellor requested £1000) Mick.

at least it is going up - better than nothing I s'pose.

 

[mikki.young]

Hi,
The limit is being raised to £340 from 1st January 2007 (although the Chancellor requested £1000) Another example of our Country being run by Europe..!!

QUOTE]

That is great news - at that level we may not have to go through the red channel any more! Thanks for sharing

 

[VSL]

We bought mostly Disney sleepers and some soft toys the last time we went to WDW, and we just removed all the tags from them. That way, we could have just as easily have bought them on a previous trip and taken them back with us.

We don't spend much on 'souveniours' anyway though, and I doubt we got anywhere near the £145 limit each.

 

[steve_rob]

After all these bad experiences of people going through the red channel, we must have just got really lucky.

DW (or as she was then DF) had bought a diamond and sapphire necklace in the Florida Mall that would go with her wedding dress which cost $750ish (a similar one she'd seen in this country would have set her back almost that in pounds).

Other than that, we hadn't brought back all that much - probably just about reached our £290 limit between us on food and clothes and other small items - but decided to be honest and go through red anyway. There was no-one there - had to ring a bell to get attention. The customs guy actually seemed quite surprised that we'd owned up!

He asked for the receipt which I think said $764 (or something like that), but as he didn't have his calculator on him, he rounded it down to 750 to make it easier for himself. He then decided on a rate of $1.50=£1 for a similiar reason, even though the rate was about $1.41 at the time, leaving us with a total of £500 to pay duty on. He then took both our allowances off (he never asked if we'd brought anything else back, so we never told him!) meaning we were now down to £210. One again, the lack of calculator (plus he told us "just cause you've been honest") meant that he charged us 20% instead of 22.5%, which was £42, which he then further rounded down to £40!

And throughout the whole time, he remained very polite and very friendly. I estimate we should have paid about £120 duty, but ended up with just a third of that!

 

[#1MMFan]

I would hope that you would be *less* likely to get stopped in Glasgow. We are a friendly bunch up here. Incidentally, I just came back a direct flight from Chicago to Glasgow and noticed a whole load of people clearly had no idea about the difference between the blue channel and the green channel. Lots of americans going through the blue one! wooops!

 

[daipp]

We bought mostly Disney sleepers and some soft toys the last time we went to WDW, and we just removed all the tags from them. That way, we could have just as easily have bought them on a previous trip and taken them back with us.

Customs are within their rights to ask for proof that you paid duty on the items when you first brought them into the country - if you can't they will ask for the appropriate payment there an then.

 

[VSL]

But then I could contest that.
I mean, it could have been a gift from someone else.
Not to mention that I could have acquired them in the UK (online shopping, for example). And Disney soft toys are available throughout the UK, as well as Disney sleepers.

Really, the only thing that I would be remotely concerned about are expensive items and stuff like DVD's.

It's US immigration that scares me!

Also, OT, but how come you're in Norfolk and have a Welsh Dragon as your avator? *is Welsh*

 

[UKDEB]

Luckily, Customs Officers aren't real people and don't read (or contribute to) internet forums.

 

[alisonbestford]

Luckily, Customs Officers aren't real people and don't read (or contribute to) internet forums.

 

[daipp]

But then I could contest that.
I mean, it could have been a gift from someone else.
Not to mention that I could have acquired them in the UK (online shopping, for example). And Disney soft toys are available throughout the UK, as well as Disney sleepers.

Also, OT, but how come you're in Norfolk and have a Welsh Dragon as your avator? *is Welsh*

The onus of proof is with you!

I come from South Wales but live in Norfolk - I'm actually the self appointed Welsh cultural ambassador to Norfolk (and what a hard job it is ).

David

 

[homerdog]

But then I could contest that.

But you'd be lying, wouldn't you?

It's also not up to the Customs Officer to prove the provenance of any item - that's your responsibility in law.

if you get stopped, answer any questions truthfully

FWIW

 

[VSL]

AFAIC, until our taxes stop being spent on big 'artistic' rocks outside hospitals and that kind of junk, I'm not giving any more to the British government than I need to.

And, like I previously said, we don't spend anywhere near the limit each on stuff that we bring back anyway. And, for those who do, it appears that the limit is increasing.

I'm sure that all the people who can drive here who are talking about being totally law abiding and what not have never driven over the speed limit

daipp - I'm from Swansea (well, Neath, but I spend more time in Swansea than anywhere else!)

 

[kylie]

respect for our laws (which IMHO favour criminals and punish victims) has appeard in this thread. I recieved an e-mail sometime ago which I paste below for your amusement

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little over 500 employees, yet has the following statistics? 29 have been accused of spouse abuse

7 have been arrested for fraud

19 have been accused of writing bad cheques

117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

3 have done time for assault

71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

8 have been arrested for shoplifting

21 are currently defendants in lawsuits

84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

<hr size="1"> Can you guess which organization this is?

They are members of the British Houses of Parliament, that's the same group that produces hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in check.

 

[dee slack]

respect for our laws (which IMHO favour criminals and punish victims) has appeard in this thread. I recieved an e-mail sometime ago which I paste below for your amusement

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little over 500 employees, yet has the following statistics? 29 have been accused of spouse abuse

7 have been arrested for fraud

19 have been accused of writing bad cheques

117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

3 have done time for assault

71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

8 have been arrested for shoplifting

21 are currently defendants in lawsuits

84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

<hr size="1"> Can you guess which organization this is?

They are members of the British Houses of Parliament, that's the same group that produces hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in check.

OMG - that's absolutely disgusting.
Y'know sometimes I really hate living in this country - wish I had the nerve to up sticks somewhere else, any suggestions? or is it a case of the grass not being greener on the other side?

 

[lorapinky]

I would like to live in the celebration town...dont think the DH would approve!

As for the custom issuse I am really confused as when we came back frm disney last year we were really nervous about getting caught for bringing back $1500.00 worth of disney goods!

But once we got our suitcase we just walked around the corner waiting to see the custom officer and guess what we were in the entrance of the airport! Not a single person there to ask us about anything, we ran before we pushed our luck!

So my question is where are the custom officers meant to be? As we got of the plane, went for our luggage and that was it???

Though I have to admit I took tages of evreything I bought and turned my new disney tops inside out and put them with the dirty clothing. No custom officer is going to try and sort my dirty washing out surely? Yes the new stuff needs a clean but I tend to wash new things first anyhow!

I do feel like a smuggler doing this but its worth it...