Clerk admits he was a smuggler

Press, 13 June 1979, Page 24

Clerk admits he was a smuggler

PA Auckland A customs agency clerk ran a smuggling system from his bedroom for 15 months, bringing in radiocassettes, clock radios and a camera, the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland has been told.

Brent Lindsay Smith, unemployed, admitted 33 charges of smuggling, breaching the Customs Act and Reserve Bank Act, and importing prohibited goods when he appeared before Mr J< R. Aubin, S.M.

The prosecutor, Mr A. R. Fenton, said Smith, then 19, was employed as a customs clerk with an agency which prepared the paperwork for companies which wished to import goods. In mid-1977 he formed a

company called Smith Electronic and worked from a Post Office box and his bedroom. He wrote to overseas suppliers of radio and stereo equipment and arranged for goods to be sent to him. The customs declaration on the goods “misdescribed” the contents as electrical components or said the goods were being returned to New Zealand after minor repairs overseas. No customs duty, sales tax, or import licence was applied to the goods. Mr Fenton said physical inspection of all parcels was impossible for the Customs Department, which relied heavily on the honesty of persons filling out customs declarations. That was why Smith was successful for so long.

In January this year the Customs Department intercepted 48 radio cassette units, a camera, and 20 clock radios which had been wrongly described on the customs declaration. Smith’s house was searched under a warrant and invoices were seized. His van was also taken by the Department, as it had been used to transport the goods.

Mr Fenton said Smith had grossed $13,623 over the 15 months he was operating and was liable to a maximum fine of $lBO,OOO. He said $5598 was owed in duty. Smith had posted $10,241 to a Singapore trader at a time when New Zealand was trying to conserve overseas funds, and without the permission of the Reserve Bank.

His counsel, Mr J. Cowern, said Smith had applied for an import li* cence six times, and was refused each time. The structure of import licensing was such that unless one had a history of importing, it was very hard to break into the field. He said Smith made $lOO on each of the 89 cassette radios he brought into the country, but if the seized goods and the van were taken into account Smith had made very little on the venture. Smith had sunk ail his profits into the seized shipment. He had an associate who would also appear before the court.

Smith owed a substantial sum in sales tax and was unemployed. His prospects of getting another job in customs work were minimal.

The Magistrate said he would call for a probation report because Smith could be fined up to $lBO,OOO. He convicted Smith and remanded him on $750 bail to June 25 for sentence.