TC09667 - [2025] UKFTT 01254 (TC)

On 28 February 2023, HMRC officers attended Len Lothian’s premises unannounced as part of a random inspection, when Mr Lees was on duty as site manager. At that point Mr Lees had no reason to suppose HMRC were going to find excise goods on which duty had not been paid on the premises. Specifically, he had no reason to suspect there were such goods in Unit B1022.

Mr Lees cooperated with the HMRC officers. He gave access to the site and provided a layout. Officer Bernard took a statement from Mr Lees and recorded the content of that statement in his notebook.

Officer Green inspected the site with Tobacco Detection Dog Delta (“TDD Delta”). TDD Delta indicated the presence of tobacco in Unit B1022.

Mr Lees indicated that Unit B1022 was leased to Chelsea Kelly. Mr Lees provided the mobile contact details he had on record. Officer Stevenson called the number. A man answered and denied knowledge of the unit. We consider it likely that the man who answered was Kami and he was aware of the tobacco.

Mr Lees gave permission for HMRC to access Unit B1022 and offered to open Unit B1022 with bolt cutters. However HMRC declined the offer to use bolt cutters.

Officer Bernard opened the padlock that was securing the unit using a skeleton key. HMRC officers seized 85,640 non-UK duty paid cigarettes and 140.3 kilograms of hand-rolling tobacco. They left a seizure notice (form ENF156) and public notice 12A inside the unit and re-locked it.

Mr Lees saw boxes being removed from the unit on CCTV. He did not know what was inside them. Before the unit was relocked while walking past the unit he saw there were other boxes and furniture still in the unit.

HMRC officers did not provide any guidance to Mr Lees or Len Lothian about restricting access to Unit B1022, requiring ID from anyone who sought access to Unit B1022 or offered payment in respect of it, or retaining records following the seizure.