Plea over forfeiture

Press, 19 December 1985, Page 4

Plea over forfeiture

PA Auckland A group of lawyers wants the Customs and Fisheries Departments stripped of their “fearsome” powers of forfeiture. At present an aircraft can be seized if its pilot smuggles $l5O worth of watches into New Zealand. An ocean-going trawler can be forfeited if one crewman illegally takes fish. The group, appointed by the council of the Auckland District Law Society to consider public issues, wants forfeiture to be at the discretion of the courts. At the moment forfeiture is mandatory

The group says owners should have the right of a hearing and an appeal on seizing of their property. The lawyers emphasise that Government departments do not seize a plane or boat unless the offence is serious. Of eight boats seized in recent years, all were re_turned. But at least two aircraft were still being held by the Customs Department for alleged sales tax offences. The group did not want forfeiture laws repealed, but arranged so that “the opportunity- for abuse and injustice is minimised.”