RTE 1 Tonight - Customs and VRT

G-Money

I was just checking what's on tonight and there's a show called Customs on at 7.30pm on RTE 1. It follows the work of the Customs bureau through their day to day work. What interested me was the bit about the evasion unit tracking down UK registered cars in Cork. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Brabus

Must remember to tune in for it this evening.

Owen

Not tonight. Tonight is Dublin Airport Customs.

[EDIT]Sorry OP, the Cork Customs were featured afterwards[/EDIT]

vengeance52

its doing VRT as we speak. covering all bases

Owen

That's gas. The kid in the black Cooper with the bodykit is still driving around on UK plates here in Cork, I saw the car today. He was given until the 12th to VRT it, and today's the 14th.

vengeance52

ned78 wrote: »

That's gas. The kid in the black Cooper with the bodykit is still driving around on UK plates here in Cork, I saw the car today. He was given until the 12th to VRT it, and today's the 14th.

the customs guy also said that you have 3 days to put the irish plates on after you pay the VRT so hes got til tomorrow to have the plates up.

Rowley Birkin QC

What shocked me most was when he said he was a student and needed the Cooper for college.

Not begrudging in the slightest, but if you can afford to have a Mini Cooper for college then you can afford to clear it.

minxie

bigkev49 wrote: »

What shocked me most was when he said he was a student and needed the Cooper for college.

Not begrudging in the slightest, but if you can afford to have a Mini Cooper for college then you can afford to clear it.

yeah totally agree.. didnt take him long to cough up
the €600 fine either...

BArra

ive never laid eyes on the customs people in cork, u see numerous yellow reg cars parked in similar spots in cork, for months, nothing comes of it. i loved yerman with the coopers reaction when the officer announced who he was..

"ah **** it" priceless stuff, and again the lad looked well into his 20's, how does he afford to have a cooper while going to college, but then cant pay the vrt for 9 months. for a lad going to college, not the brightest

Owen

vengeance52 wrote: »

the customs guy also said that you have 3 days to put the irish plates on after you pay the VRT so hes got til tomorrow to have the plates up.

That's assuming that he has paid it.

unkel

bigkev49 wrote: »

What shocked me most was when he said he was a student and needed the Cooper for college.

Not begrudging in the slightest, but if you can afford to have a Mini Cooper for college then you can afford to clear it.

My thoughts exactly. I only saw a bit of it where the officer gave him some preferential treatment because he claimed the guy co-operated and needed his car for college. Unbelievable stuff really.

Anyway, it is good to see some crack down on tax dodging frauds...

DublinDilbert

bigkev49 wrote: »

What shocked me most was when he said he was a student and needed the Cooper for college.

Not begrudging in the slightest, but if you can afford to have a Mini Cooper for college then you can afford to clear it.

Not sure of the back ground here, as i didn't see the program... but full time students from a foreign country are exempt from VRT (Not sure if the guy was Irish or from abroad)... If he's Irish no excuses...

rebel.ranter

ned78 wrote: »

That's gas. The kid in the black Cooper with the bodykit is still driving around on UK plates here in Cork, I saw the car today. He was given until the 12th to VRT it, and today's the 14th.

He isn't the most courteous road user either. He has a fondness for the right pedal passing my house....

Didn't see the programme but I assume it's the same guy. I always thought that Cooper was a bit "stick out" to be avoiding VRT. Plus it's always full of young lads (says he the "old" lad ).

He's definitely Irish.

galwaytt

bigkev49 wrote: »

What shocked me most was when he said he was a student and needed the Cooper for college.

++ 1 on yanking him for that - a student in Cooper - who's he kidding.

They should have taken the car, though.

My wife's not happy, though........she want's to know why they're not pulling all the foreign reg cars which are clearly here permanently, and thus avoiding VRT in the first place............I won't even start on what she thinks is a major road safety argument for banning them too - left hand drive.

I know a bunch of east european cars here on their LT/LV/RU/CZ/SK plates, and, tbh........it pisses me off. No tax, NCT, no VRT, and lord knows about insurance.....

LT97 - 7 series in Galway for years.
PO TTTT - has appeared on 2 different Audi's in Salthill over a 4 yr period......
And the only thing wrong with the late 90's blue A4 with LT plates......? Oh, nuthin'.........it's just RHD is all...........yeah, right. What I give to see the VIN on that one.........

Heroditas

Do you need to pay VRT though if you've owned the car for more than 6 months prior to living here? I thought you were exempt from paying it in that instance and merely had to change the reg to an Irish one.

BArra

i actually saw an unmarked car in cork one day pull a foreign reg car, it was at the lights outside nevada browns/brannigans, as i was waiting for the lights, i could hear every word, the guard was heard to say no insurance or tax... in a bit of a negative tone to the foreign fella

the foreign fella went scrambling thru his glovebox for most likely phantom documents.

unkel

galwaytt wrote: »

I know a bunch of east european cars here on their LT/LV/RU/CZ/SK plates, and, tbh........it pisses me off. No tax, NCT, no VRT, and lord knows about insurance.....

Must be an enforcement issue. Here in Lucan (25% of the population eastern european - my guess, based on nothing) there were literally thousands of eastern european registered cars up to about 1 or 2 years ago. There's hardly any left now. Word's out in their communities they had to get rid and they did.

zuroph

galwaytt wrote: »

++ 1 on yanking him for that - a student in Cooper - who's he kidding.

They should have taken the car, though.

My wife's not happy, though........she want's to know why they're not pulling all the foreign reg cars which are clearly here permanently, and thus avoiding VRT in the first place............I won't even start on what she thinks is a major road safety argument for banning them too - left hand drive.

I know a bunch of east european cars here on their LT/LV/RU/CZ/SK plates, and, tbh........it pisses me off. No tax, NCT, no VRT, and lord knows about insurance.....

LT97 - 7 series in Galway for years.
PO TTTT - has appeared on 2 different Audi's in Salthill over a 4 yr period......
And the only thing wrong with the late 90's blue A4 with LT plates......? Oh, nuthin'.........it's just RHD is all...........yeah, right. What I give to see the VIN on that one.........

from what i gather,from talking to a collegue, his insurance is cheaper back in lithuania, and he can buy a much more powerful car. they then buy a boat ticket back to the mainland every so often, and can then produce it as "evidence" that they've been back home.

Owen

They're not all at it you know. My other half's Polish, and has an Irish car, Irish License, Irish Tax & Insurance too.

The major reason the Gardaí don't pull the Eastern European cars, is due to the language barrier. It's too much hassle for them to do it, and the UK plated cars are much easier to target and generate revenue from.

Not saying that I agree with it either though, before anyone suggests that.

unkel

ned78 wrote: »

The major reason the Gardaí don't pull the Eastern European cars, is due to the language barrier. It's too much hassle for them to do it, and the UK plated cars are much easier to target and generate revenue from.

You probably have a point there. I know for sure that the disappearance of eastern european registered cars in Lucan was not because those cars were confiscated by Gardai / customs (or even VRTd / registered for free by the owners for that matter!), but because the owners got rid of them and bought Irish registered cars to replace them with.

DJ Hafez

That was one of the better irish produced programs on RTE. Was interesting, direct to the point and had a bit of prior thought before filming. Fair play to them! Looking forward to next week, wish if I didnt miss the start though

Holsten

Anyone know if this will be repeated?

Or watchable online? Checked rte but nothing there yet.

Top Dog

Would have like to have seen this myself too.

Got pulled a few months ago (in Co. Cork) in a UK plate Golf. Had literally only brought it in the night before. Had left documentation at home for it and only thing I had on me was the stub from the ferry the previous night. So the guys followed me home (well, one travelled with me and the other followed) just to check everything was legit. Had a quick check around the house too to see if there were any other foreign plated cars about (there were 4 other cars on the property at the time), and once they saw the paperwork they were happy enough that there was nothing shady going on.

The guy that travelled with me was very laid-back and chatty which was a nice impression to give, though he did reveal to me that the guy following us was much more hard-nosed and had wanted to confiscate the car off me! He told me how they had spotted the car at the side of the street and though it was clean (a hint to them that its not long landed) they still checked it out. He told me they could easily spot the cars that had been over a while as the Irish aren't generally as meticulous at keeping their cars clean as the English tend to be. They were in a battered (broken rear bumper, covered in crap) black Vectra.

I told him the car was going to be cleared by the Friday (they pulled me on the Tuesday) and he told me that was no bother. Even though it wasn't within the stated 24hours of being landed, there was a genuine reason for the delay, and as I had been so relaxed in furnishing him with all documentation (invoice, receipt, travel receipts) he said that was grand.

Car was cleared 3 days later (due to work pattern) and delivered to its new owner with no problems.

rocky

good program, anyone catch how they knew about the girl with the cigarettes? Was a dog used to sniff those too? or they show up while scanning the luggage?

Top Dog

Should add that while I understand they have a job to do I also found it slightly annoying that they pulled me over. Not because of the inconvenience (I wasn't in any rush) but down to the guy openly admitting that the car was spotless so they had a good idea it was only recently brought over. Like why not pull the ones that are here months and covered in crap so? I personally know of 3 people who drove around on UK plates for over 6 months before clearing their cars, but I suppose its just luck of the draw really.

jimmycrackcorm

unkel wrote: »

You probably have a point there. I know for sure that the disappearance of eastern european registered cars in Lucan was not because those cars were confiscated by Gardai / customs (or even VRTd / registered for free by the owners for that matter!), but because the owners got rid of them and bought Irish registered cars to replace them with.

I've noticed myself quite a few lhd cars that now have irish registrations around lucan. I know that customs keep a computerised track and that simply going in and out of the country is not enough. .

masseyno9

Top Dog wrote: »

Should add that while I understand they have a job to do I also found it slightly annoying that they pulled me over. Not because of the inconvenience (I wasn't in any rush) but down to the guy openly admitting that the car was spotless so they had a good idea it was only recently brought over. Like why not pull the ones that are here months and covered in crap so? I personally know of 3 people who drove around on UK plates for over 6 months before clearing their cars, but I suppose its just luck of the draw really.

In fairness to them, you could have had it washed the day before after having it over here for 6 months previously. Or you could be the kind of person who washes their car every weekend. even though they said they had an idea it wasn't in the country long, they were still right to pull you over and check it out until their 'idea' was proved right.
And for the record they do pull over lots of cars, but there just aren't enough of them to catch everyone. As you said, luck of the draw, and some people ride their luck for 6 months, some get caught, some don't and some do it the legal way.

Farls

Holsten wrote: »

Anyone know if this will be repeated?

Or watchable online? Checked rte but nothing there yet.

Anyone got any info on this? I'd love to see it

furtzy

Enjoyable enough programme but the incident was the "student" in the Mini pissed me off. He should have had the car seized and made pay the full fine. Can't believe they fell for his sob story.

They really need more of these patrols. In my town the number of foreign regs is on the increase. Two in my estate have been on UK plates for 4 years now!

Victor_M

Heroditas wrote: »

Do you need to pay VRT though if you've owned the car for more than 6 months prior to living here? I thought you were exempt from paying it in that instance and merely had to change the reg to an Irish one.

I've been looking at a UK reg'd CL500 for the last 4 years (at least) parked across the road form the Italian restaurant in Castleknock village, not to mention numerous 4.8is X5's and a handful of RR's as well as a couple of cayennes passing through the village on a regular basis.

I'd say the lack of Eastern European cars is down to the construction industry more than compliance IMHO.

keefg

Victor_M wrote: »

I'd say the lack of Eastern European cars is down to the construction industry more than compliance IMHO.

I think you're right on this one. I know of loads of Polish & Lithuanian lads who have gone back home this year.

Heroditas

Victor_M wrote: »

I've been looking at a UK reg'd CL500 for the last 4 years (at least) parked across the road form the Italian restaurant in Castleknock village

Oooh I know the car you're talking about. I've seen it a few times myself when we've gone up to that Italian restaurant for lunch!

Cookie_Monster

Victor_M wrote: »

I've been looking at a UK reg'd CL500 for the last 4 years (at least) parked across the road form the Italian restaurant in Castleknock village.

You could always report it, you know, if it bothers you that much:p

craichoe

rebel.ranter wrote: »

He isn't the most courteous road user either. He has a fondness for the right pedal passing my house....

Didn't see the programme but I assume it's the same guy. I always thought that Cooper was a bit "stick out" to be avoiding VRT. Plus it's always full of young lads (says he the "old" lad ).

He's definitely Irish.

It doesn't matter where he is from, its where his primary residence is. I.E. Irish person resident in UK and going to college in Ireland with a car on UK plates, exempt from VRT.

The Nationality has nothing to do with exemption

smash

furtzy wrote: »

They really need more of these patrols. In my town the number of foreign regs is on the increase. Two in my estate have been on UK plates for 4 years now!

Victor_M wrote: »

I've been looking at a UK reg'd CL500 for the last 4 years (at least) parked across the road form the Italian restaurant in Castleknock village, not to mention numerous 4.8is X5's and a handful of RR's as well as a couple of cayennes passing through the village on a regular basis.

Lads, it's not affecting you and it's not like they're smuggling drugs - it's just a car on a UK plate ffs!

Victor_M

steve06 wrote: »

Lads, it's not affecting you and it's not like they're smuggling drugs - it's just a car on a UK plate ffs!

In fairness your right, by the way I'm going to stop paying PAYE and my annual car tax, sure it's just tax, it won't bother any one else.

smash

these people pay their PAYE and they pay insurance. Id you did a favour for a mate and he gave you €20 would you go off filing a tax return? no I doubt it!

And you don't know if these people have UK residence either... If the car has a valid uk tax disc, then they probably do!

I know if I had a house here and a place in the UK, there's not a hope in hell I would have my cars on Irish plates!

craichoe

steve06 wrote: »

these people pay their PAYE and they pay insurance. Id you did a favour for a mate and he gave you €20 would you go off filing a tax return? no I doubt it!

And you don't know if these people have UK residence either... If the car has a valid uk tax disc, then they probably do!

I know if I had a house here and a place in the UK, there's not a hope in hell I would have my cars on Irish plates!

Aye, +1 on this,

People automatically assume that because their Foreign plates then they must be liable for VRT. This is simply not the case, its where your primary residence is, i.e. where you live normally.

Driving the car out of the country for a day makes knacker all difference as it does not prove residence.

If that was the case it would be a stupid state of affairs, double taxation all over the place.

The difference between Ireland and the UK vs Continental Europe is that you have to register with the City/Town Hall.

So proving residency in Ireland and UK is a bit of a grey area.

Dolph Starbeam

Ye same thing here, my brother brought his Clio home from Scotland with him for a years work. He used to park it in the hotel beside work which was ok, one evening he came out and there was a letter from customs on the car telling him he had to pay. They must have been watching the car.

Victor_M

steve06 wrote: »

these people pay their PAYE and they pay insurance. Id you did a favour for a mate and he gave you €20 would you go off filing a tax return? no I doubt it!

And you don't know if these people have UK residence either... If the car has a valid uk tax disc, then they probably do!

I know if I had a house here and a place in the UK, there's not a hope in hell I would have my cars on Irish plates!

That's great, IF you had a house in the UK and IF it was your primary residence then you would be doing nothing wrong.

Sorry to break this to you buddy, but you can't just pick and choose which laws to obey.

It's a little bit Naive to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and presume everyone is doing to right/legal thing. Hence the need for enforcement. There are way too many chancers living in Ireland.

Seth Brundle

galwaytt wrote: »

I know a bunch of east european cars here on their LT/LV/RU/CZ/SK plates, and, tbh........it pisses me off. No tax, NCT, no VRT, and lord knows about insurance.....

LT97 - 7 series in Galway for years.
PO TTTT - has appeared on 2 different Audi's in Salthill over a 4 yr period......
And the only thing wrong with the late 90's blue A4 with LT plates......? Oh, nuthin'.........it's just RHD is all...........yeah, right. What I give to see the VIN on that one.........

How long ago did you report them?

Victor_M

kbannon wrote: »

How long ago did you report them?

In fairness unless you know where these cars reside there is very little point in reporting them (I'm presuming GalwayTT is just seeing them around the place)

I've had my fair share of cars removed from circulation.

L1011

To whom do you report cars? VRO in Rosslare couldn't seem less interested if they tried.

Seth Brundle

Victor_M wrote: »

In fairness unless you know where these cars reside there is very little point in reporting them (I'm presuming GalwayTT is just seeing them around the place)

I've had my fair share of cars removed from circulation.

True. However, I'm curious to know the percentage of the public who bitch (not pointing finger at galwaytt) about foreign drivers but do nothing.

furtzy

MYOB wrote: »

To whom do you report cars? VRO in Rosslare couldn't seem less interested if they tried.

Would also like this info. I've tried e-mailing various offices but never got a reply

smash

Victor_M wrote: »

It's a little bit Naive to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and presume everyone is doing to right/legal thing. Hence the need for enforcement.

I'm not Naive - I just don't really care that someone hasn't forked out for VRT, it doesn't bother me and it never will. if they can do it for 1 week or 6 months.... I really don't care and neither should anyone else for god sake deal with your own lives and focus your energy on things that matter, it's ok to sneak a phone call to the revenue to say Jimmy down the road has a UK reg car but I bet you'd never stand up to some scum bag if you walked by him and he was dealing heroine to kids.

Victor_M wrote: »

There are way too many chancers living in Ireland.

yea, and most of them are politicians and they make their own rules as they go!

Victor_M

steve06 wrote: »

I'm not Naive - I just don't really care that someone hasn't forked out for VRT, it doesn't bother me and it never will. if they can do it for 1 week or 6 months.... I really don't care and neither should anyone else for god sake deal with your own lives and focus your energy on things that matter, it's ok to sneak a phone call to the revenue to say Jimmy down the road has a UK reg car but I bet you'd never stand up to some scum bag if you walked by him and he was dealing heroine to kids.


yea, and most of them are politicians and they make their own rules as they go!

kbannon wrote: »

True. However, I'm curious to know the percentage of the public who bitch (not pointing finger at galwaytt) about foreign drivers but do nothing.

I would guess about 95% - 99%, it took a fair bit of persistence for me to get my first car removed the ones after that were fairly straight forward once I had the name and phone number of a guy in Customs and Excise.

Someone asked about contact details earlier, I have posted up the information on a different thread (going back a couple of years probably) so the search function is your best bet, I haven't reported any in ages, kids now don't have the same amount of spare time I used to.

Victor_M

steve06 wrote: »

r but I bet you'd never stand up to some scum bag if you walked by him and he was dealing heroine to kids.

Never seen a scumbag dealing to kids, but if I see something wrong and I can reasonably safely do something about it I would not & have not walked past. From littering to muggings. So i'm afraid your a wrong there.

Some people have a bit more backbone than you.

ardmacha

.E. Irish person resident in UK and going to college in Ireland with a car on UK plates, exempt from VRT.

In particular students never become resident, even if they have a long course. The flip side of this is that being a student does not count towards time required for naturalization etc.

ep1k-w1n

i think its a lack of back bone that makes people rat on each other.
if the car is insured thats as far as your concern should stretch, tax, vrt nct are all just ways of extracting the most amount of money, for a 3rd world infrastructure and public service from a gutless race of people who wont do a thing about it.

i drive a green 316i 4 door around still on the nordie plates and iv never been stopped for anything, nor paid a speeding ticket, parking fine and now wont have to pay any tolls wooohooo.

heres my licence place: N863 XUK, im usually found on the m50 at peaktimes, dublin 24 and occasionally courtown. the very odd time in the lidl in tallah diffin her round in circles but dont do that any more really.

report me there all you like im sure theyll have a nice bit of cheese for you, or maybe 40 pieces of silver.

catch me if you can, me name is dan, sure im your man.

Seth Brundle

you're so cool ep1k-w1n!
I wish I could be like you!