WHERE DID YOU GET THAT CAR?

Putaruru Press, Volume XXI, Issue 1235, 19 June 1947, Page 8

WHERE DID YOU GET THAT CAR?

CHECK FOR SMUQOLERS Investigations In England Traps are being set for men who have been making thousands of pounds a Week smuggling American cars from Eire into London’s West End. Customs and Board of Trade official® have started investigations in England, states the Daily Excess. Official® in Northern Ireland, where the cars are taken for registration, have been told to ask this question: “ Where did you buy that car '! ” If the answer is unsatisfactory the car will be confiscated and the buyer prosecuted. American curs, taking up half the width of a West End street, are bought in Eire for £650. Then they are:— Smuggled over the border to Northern Ireland and shipped to Britain. Or : Taken over the border on tourist tickets, registered, and then shipped over.

This is an Eire Customs offence, for tourists must guarantee to take their cars back. But a fine of about £SO is paid, and added to expenses* These total about £6OO by the time each car reaches the West End. It

sells there for £2500 to £3OOO. Total profit: Around £ISOO. Mr. Johnson Davies, secretary of—the Motor Trade Association, said recently : “ The only legal way to get an American car is with a Board of Trade license—and not many licenses are issued. “If one or two cars in the West End were confiscated there would be no more smuggling. People would be too scared to buy them.” The following warning by the Board of Trade should prove effective:—* “We are allowing no spare parts for American cars into the country.” -