Visitor Fined Over Car Import

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32234, 28 February 1970, Page 48

Visitor Fined Over Car Import

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 27.

An air traffic control officer, Norman Latham, was fined $75 by Mr J. A. Wicks, S.M., in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court today on a charge that he erroneously declared on a baggage sufferance entry that he intended to reside permanently in New Zealand.

The Magistrate dismissed an alternative charge which alleged that Latham imported from Hong Kong a motor vehicle with intent to defraud the customs of revenue.

Latham pleaded not guilty to the charges through his counsel, Mr J. P. Clapham Both charges were laid under the Customs Act. 1966 Mr M. B Horton, prosecuting for the Customs Department. said Latham arrived in New Zealand by aircraft with his wife and two children on January 3. Before his arrival he had been living in Hong Kong, and on arrival at Wellington Airport he completed a passenger arrival card on which he stated that he was arriving in New Zealand as a tourist.

On January 21 Latham called at the Customs Department to import a 1969 Volkswagen car and presented a baggage sufferance entry—the form used when someone wanted to import a vehicle as part of his baggage If the conditions were complied with the car was released to the importer free of customs duty and sales tax One of the conditions was that he had arrived in New Zealand to take up permanent residence. A statement to that effect was included in a declaration signed by Latham. It was this condition that the Court would be concerned with. A few days after the car was released Latham, as a result of a Ministerial announcement about the importation of cars on a no-remittance scheme, had inquired whether he eould sell his car immediately, said Mr Horton

“In the course of that interview he admitted .he had arranged bookings to leave New Zealand on the Northern Star on March 2, that he had confirmed these bookings, and that he and his wife and family intended to leave on that date and had no return bookings," Mr Horton said. “The smuggling charge is that he imported the car with intent to defraud the customs It is submitted that his intent

can be gauged from the fact that he made a declaration relating to the fact that he would be remaining in the country as a permanent rest dent, whereas in fact he had confirmed bookings to leave within a month." The Magistrate said it was quite clear from Latham's own evidence that when he arrived in New Zealand he had not made up his mind whether he would remain in the country or go farther afield Entering a conviction on the charge of making a false declaration, the Magistrate said that if Latham had still been in a state of uncertainty he was not entitled to sign the declaration and was therefore guilty under section 245 of the Customs Act. On this charge he would not have to forfeit the car. The Magistrate added that it was clear that Latham, in his own mind, had felt that if he did not stay in New Zealand he would have to pay the duty. He did not think, therefore, that the smuggling charge had been proved beyond reasonable doubt and it would be dismissed.