Brining cigarettes to UK penalty, please help

brat02

Hi all,
A while ago I have brought some(not just a few) cartons of cigarettes from Russia to England for my personal use but my luggage was lost. An external company called me on behalf of the airport and asked some questions to identify which is my luggage and I have given some description, but for some reason they forced me into giving them the luggage code and said that to identify it they will to open it up so anyway, when it was returned to me it was empty and there was some papers about confiscate it and have of it it was in Russian so I guess they found out about it in Russian’s airport and just now I have received a letter about it asking me to reply in 30 days to help the investigation or something.

I cannot post scanned letters as it says new users cannot do that, can someone help me with that please? Maybe can send it to you by Email and you can post it for me? please
at2008rus@gmail.com

Have anyone been in such a situation? What’s best for me to do now?

Thanks a lot for any good advise

tomtontom

I would suggest claiming on your travel insurance, but as you appear to have exceeded your customs allowance you will have to write off anything you were trying to bring in unlawfully.

London50

Hi

As you can only bring back 200 cigs from Russia and there are a LOT of illegally manufactured brands that come from that area you IMO will have lost them anyway so if you choose to get the letter translated or not just except that you stash of cigs are gone

London50

powerful_Rogue

You can only bring in 200 cigarettes to the UK from a non-eu country.

Im presuming as you have tried to export more then the allowence out of Russia, the Russian customs have seized the cigarettes and the contents of your case.

browneyedbazzi

You won't be getting the cigarettes back.

Who was the letter from? Have you been invited in for an interview?

If you attempted to illegally import a large quantity of cigarettes you may face criminal charges or have to pay a penalty (usually the amount of duty and VAT that would have been payable on the goods). You should speak to a solicitor.

brat02

I don't want them back, I just want to make sure I don't get any fine to pay, can someone help me with posting links of these scanned letters I have recieved please?

rus4u

here you go matey

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fj9zhiq08uvirjb/GWpW6YmAoI?lst#/

brat02

Thanks a lot for the link rus4u!

tomtontom

The letter is from HMRC, you are being investigated for smuggling. You need to take legal advice - this is a very serious matter.

brat02

tomtontom wrote: »

The letter is from HMRC, you are being investigated for smuggling. You need to take legal advice - this is a very serious matter.

do I need to find a solicitor ? what are they called who deal with this kind of stuff?

tomtontom

How many cigarettes are we talking about, and is this the first time? Your problem falls into two areas, tax law and criminal law. It would be easier to find a solicitor specialising in criminal law initially, they are more likely to offer a free consultation.