SMUGGLING IN NZ

Press, Volume C, Issue 29563, 12 July 1961, Page 14

SMUGGLING IN NZ

“Professional Operators” (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. July 11. Travellers and seamen smuggling goods into New Zealand were mostly amateurs; the professionals were businessmen who brought goods into the country with fraudulent invoices, said the Collector of Customs at Auckland (Mr G. H. Lindsey); He told the Auckland Chamber of Commerce that smugglers in the professional category were smooth operators. • They did not bring in goods physically, but gave false values and descriptions on their invoices. Over the last two years in Auckland, many of these businessmen had “bitten off more than they could chew.” They had incurred heavy fines and forfeited a large amount of goods. Mr Lindsey said his department was about to sell £20,000 worth of goods that had come into its hands through business frauds.

Most attempts to beat the Customs are apparently unimaginative, but Mr Lindsey related how a circus leaving New .Zealand a few years ago had tried to smuggle out currency hidden in a lion’s cage. “The Customs Department, however, had a Daniel among its staff and he entered the den and retrieved the money.”