customs at cork airport.

joeduggan

i was coming home to ireland after my weeks holiday in april. i had maybe 1200 cigarettes and about 20 packets of tobacco. split between my bag and my girlfriends bag. i know thats way over the amount ur allowed to have but so many people had asked me to get them cigarettes. as i entered the customs area i took the nothing to declare route and then i saw an x ray machine for the bags. i was CAUGHT. fair enough. here is what bugs me. the cigarettes were in my bag and my girlfriends bag. yet the officer only decided to take my name and address and a copy of my passport. also, my girlfriend had seven bottles of perfume which the officer didnt confiscate. does anyone know why this could be? and when i told him that i would pay the excess on the cigarettes he told me that i couldnt and that i should have gone through the proper channel in the first place.

Mr. Incognito

Well as you can imagine Customs are going to come down hard on cigarettes as opposed to perfume for obvious reasons.

I'm surprised you haven't been asked to just pay the excise there but it seems that confiscation was enough punishment for you.

Suck it up- take it on the chin mate- nothing you can do now. Can't really see how this is a taxation issue- customs are a law onto themselves and there is no hope of appeal when you were clearly in the wrong.

joeduggan

i have no problem taking it on the chin. i tried and i failed. thats fair enough. the point was that they only took my details and didnt get my girlfriends , evne though she had as much as i did and also the fact that they wouldnt let me pay the excise. i probably wouldnt have paid it but it would have been nice to have the choice. theres probably a few customs officers in cork and the rest of the country that never have to buy a cigarette. !!!

boodlesdoodles

joeduggan wrote: »

theres probably a few customs officers in cork and the rest of the country that never have to buy a cigarette. !!!

This is a ridiculous comment, you're accusing customs officers of being thieves and seizing for their own gain. You broke the law, you knew you were bringing too much in with you and as the previous poster said suck it up.

joeduggan

as i said already i accept that i had way too much but that doesnt take away from the fact that they didnt seize any of our perfume or aftershave and they failed to take my girlfriends details. obviously they didnt do their jobs properly. thats my point. im not complaining about them taking the cigarettes. im complaining about the fact that they didnt take every illegal thing i had.

boodlesdoodles

Did it ever occur to you that they were doing you a favour by only taking the cigarettes? Would you only have been happy when they took the whole lot then you'd have nothing to gripe about. Or are you jealous of your poor girlfriend being allowed keep her stuff??? If you were so bothered why didn't you make a formal complaint?

As a matter of interest where did you fly in from?

joeduggan

no i wasnt jealous because i got to keep the aftershave i had bought out there. and no i dont think they were being nice leaving me have my aftershave. i cant believe ur still missing the point. and the point of the whole thing is that they failed to do their jobs properly. its like a plumber going away from a job and leaving a little leak behind him. job hasnt been done properly. thats my point. and i did make a complaint.

boodlesdoodles

I'm not missing the point at all. If you were so angry at them not doing their job properly, why didn't you just hand it all over? What did was their response when you complained? Did the customs officer light up one of your cigarettes in front of you, just to rub it in?

joeduggan

i wrote to them and i still havent heard anything back. they are probably nearly dead from the amount of cigs i left them anyway. and imagine if they got that amount everyday. they wud have their own little business sellingg them. have a nice day!!!!

dearg lady

I would've thought you'd be happy your girlfriends details didn't get taken also..? I know my OH would be happy to 'take the hit' as it were. there are definitely flights from particular countries which are much more likely to get checked.
As Mr Incognito said, just have to suck it up

Mr. Incognito

First you complain that they took them, then you accuse them of not doing their job properly by not seizing your girlfriends perfume.

I feel for you but that's life. You were in the wrong and you got the consequences.

This is a rant, has nothing to do with taxation and accordingly I'm locking this.

If you want me to move it to PI pm me.