Originally Posted by
BEagle
As I wrote earlier, UK customs could still be an utter pain.
On one occasion we were delayed for some reason at (I think) Gatwick after going through to the departure area. As were most adults in those days, my mother was a smoker and had bought 200 fags in the duty free shop. She opened one packet and started smoking.....whereupon some little worm from Customs and Excise fronted up, demanded the duty on the opened packet and insisted that the carton should be sealed with some sticker he produced....
I think the duty came to about 1/5d. I bet he felt pleased with his work that day....
What-O! I was one of those horrid 'little worms' engaged by Her Maj to be a Customs Officer in the 60's and could write scrolls about the foolishness and deviousness of the good old British public when exposed to the temptations of duty-free for the first time. In those days your duty-free was sealed up in a bag before departure but most people smoked and some couldn't resist the temptation of an illegal puff, and you'd be surprised how many punters thought they could slip their duty-frees to their relatives who'd come to see them off. But the real game for us was on their return. You could hear the clink of bottles in their cases even as they claimed just to have the pemitted half-bottle of paint-stripper. And fags, they'd stuff 'em everywhere, down their trousers and in their knickers and bras. It was all a bit of sport, really, but it was our job to catch them, and we did our best to do so. We got a little bonus if we succeeded, but not very much. Good old days.