Tristan Thornton argues that HMRC's powers to detain goods, 'currently being used to raid warehouses all over the country', are open to challenge
HMRC detention
On 23 February 2010 officers of HMRC visited the two warehouses of Millennium Cash and Carry Ltd prepared to detain £2m of alcoholic stock. Millennium’s owners were simply told that officers were using powers under CEMA 1979 s 139 without any explanation of what those powers were. Later the Control Officer told Millennium’s representatives that there were no grounds for using these powers and that none were needed. This position shifted throughout the three months of detention to rely on grounds such as fictitious past seizures of alcohol and detention of stock supplied to other retailers under invoices that the officers could not locate.
Although justifications for detention were attempted the underlying argument was that they simply weren’t needed.
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Tristan Thornton argues that HMRC's powers to detain goods, 'currently being used to raid warehouses all over the country', are open to challenge
HMRC detention
On 23 February 2010 officers of HMRC visited the two warehouses of Millennium Cash and Carry Ltd prepared to detain £2m of alcoholic stock. Millennium’s owners were simply told that officers were using powers under CEMA 1979 s 139 without any explanation of what those powers were. Later the Control Officer told Millennium’s representatives that there were no grounds for using these powers and that none were needed. This position shifted throughout the three months of detention to rely on grounds such as fictitious past seizures of alcohol and detention of stock supplied to other retailers under invoices that the officers could not locate.
Although justifications for detention were attempted the underlying argument was that they simply weren’t needed.
...
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