TC09158 - [2024] UKFTT 00369 (TC)

On 7 March 2014, Officer Idowu (“the assessing officer”) wrote to Mr Boyle (by email) advising that HMRC intended to visit the premises in relation to the movement of alcohol on behalf of CJM. The email stated that his enquiries, thus far, had shown that an offence may have been committed, and included a draft duty calculation relating to the Goods collected on 3 August 2012 and 15 August 2012.

On 21 March 2014, Officer Idowu visited the Appellant’s premises (“the Visit”) and spoke to Mr Boyle to discuss the movement of alcohol from the Appellant’s premises on three separate occasions. The Visit was in the exercise of HMRC’s statutory powers pursuant to s 118 of the Customs & Excise Management Act 1979 (‘CEMA’). Officer Idowu showed Mr Boyle three invoices from the third parties/hauliers, each of which showed that two loads of alcohol had been collected from the Appellant’s premises in August 2012. Mr Boyle stated that no alcohol had ever been received at the site, and that the only commodity dealt with by the Appellant was waste. Officer Idowu was unaware of the first visit in 2012 and failed in his attempts to find information about the first visit when he was informed of it.