DEFRAUDING THE CUSTOMS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 21

DEFRAUDING THE CUSTOMS

Fines totalling £500 were.imposed at Lewes on Neville Tankerville Chamberlayne, of London, who pleaded guilty to five summonses alleging that he had made fraudulent attempts to evade Customs duty on eight cars imported from France between March, 1933, and October, 1934. He also pleaded guilty to two summonses alleging that he had made false declarations of the value of two of the cars. Mr. B. M. Stephenson, prosecuting, described the case as one of the most deliberate attempts at fraudulent evasion of Customs that had ever come before the Bench. Chamberlayne, he said, set himself out with other people, who were not before the Bench, but might be af some future date, deliberately to under-declare the value of expensive motor-cars. Mr. John Fennell, defending, said that the case had been hanging over Chamberlayne s head lor eight months,, and had reduced him to a shocking state of health. Referring to' a statement made_by Chamberlayne to a Customs officer, Mr. Fennell said: "It is a document which shows a blind faith in associates with whom he was dealing. He spun round himself a web of destruction from which he could not escape. AU through the document .ran the- statement, "I am willing to pay."