BEagle
Thanks for your contribution. When I was with 99 Sqn at Lyneham 1959 - 63, we were always pestered by Customs on return, especially when back from the Far East. With all the desirable goods on offer from the shops in Changi village, or duty-free from Aden etc. we HAD to be examined. But it wasn’t too bad as long as one declared the valuable and attractive items that were subject to duty and purchase tax, even with these added to the original “silly” prices one paid for cameras or watches in Changi or radios and electrical items from Aden they were considerably cheaper than UK shop prices which were firmly ruled by retail price maintenance which was enshrined in UK law ISTR to keep prices artificially high.
My brother-in-law was in the music business and had a friend a quite well known music arranger. At a party the music arranger saw the watch I had on my arm (a Rolex GMT-Master) he asked how much I’d paid for it in Singapore - when I told him (about £20 I think) he said could I get one for him too and said he’d pay the duty and VAT. As far as I was concerned no problem, so next time I was down the route and armed with his money for watch, duty and purchase tax I bought the watch for him - he was really chuffed because the same watch in the UK was selling at around £75. So the Changi village price plus UK tax and duty paid to HM Customs at Lyneham bought iy up to about £30 - £35 in all. Having done it once, friend wanted more, he was well-off, in the music industry and wanted to impress his friends with what seemed expensive gifts so asked me to help. He was the entrée to some fabulous parties usually populated by gorgeous girls so I was more than willing to help!
The moral of this story is that provided one declared everything of value to HM Customs on return to the UK and paid any relevant duties and tax you were doing no wrong, I never had any problems with HM Customs the whole time I was with 99 Sqn, which is why the only sour note is of my experience with customs is on my return from Germany in 1975, as recounted above.