Exclusive! Scoop! Real life video of UKBA/Customs Stop and Search.

Sorry it's taken so long to get this up but we had to wait until a issue with HMRC/UKBA was completely resolved. This is a real life video of a UKBA stop & search and not the stage managed garbage you get with the TV progs of Border Force UK and Customs UK.

This is Part 1 which is the initial stop. The transcript is the full version as in the video some of it had to clipped and the end bit seemed to overwrite itself for a minute or so.We still have the complete audio though on the Sonys. The i-phone stopped recording as it seems to have a cut-off after approx 55mins. lt was reset for Part 2 where we had the interview (not interrogation this time, UKBA were very polite) You don't think perchance that knowing they were being recorded had anything to do with it, do you?

The audio of Zaphod is quiet so turn sound up or refer to transcript. lf there are any video wizards out there who can bring the sound up of Zaphod, we'd appreciate it. 

Remember, we do this for you! We ourselves have no need of it. We do it to show you what your rights are and how to use them ... and make UKBA behave themselves! We never just talk the talk ... we always walk the walk ... period!


Yes, we do bring all the cigarettes home! :)


Turn on captions if subtitles don't appear .. CC on toolbar at bottom of Youtube Video

TRANSCRIPT

ZAPHOD   This conversation is being recorded. Who is stopping me?

UKBA  For what reason? We’d like to check your baggage.

ZAPHOD  I’m not interested in what you’d like. Do you have reason to stop me, other than random?

UKBA  Under section 163 of the Customs and Excise Act, we’d like to have a look in your bag.

 ZAPHOD Right. “Objective facts and information must support the use of reasonable suspicion or belief.” This is your instructions. “Ensure the use of reasonable suspicion or belief is supported by objective facts and information.” - “ Individuals may bring back any amount of excise goods for their own use or as gifts, You must have reasonable grounds for the initial stop, you..” (Get this,) “Officers must not stop someone in the hope of obtaining grounds through questioning to support a subsequent search.”

UKBA We suspect there’s cigarettes in the bag, so we’d like to have a further X-ray of your hand luggage -

ZAPHOD  Not good enough. You have to suspect that they are being carried for a commercial purpose. You have to have reason to believe -

UKBA  You’ve got more than 800 cigarettes.

 ZAPHOD You have to have, (remember, I’m recording this conversation), you have to have reason to believe that I am carrying excise goods “for a commercial purpose” before I may be stopped and searched. Ever since the “Hoverspeed versus Andrews” case, (you’ll be aware of it, it’s 2002), since then, the High Court ruled, that you may not stop and search me unless you have reason to believe that I am carrying excise goods FOR A COMMERCIAL PURPOSE. Do you have reason to believe that I am carrying excise goods FOR A COMMERCIAL PURPOSE? I’ve been through this before.

UKBA Yeah, I’ve er, I’ve never met you before in my life, so-

ZAPHOD  I’ve met your uniform many times, and I have not been beaten. You have seized cigarettes from me on three occasions. On every single occasion, I have appealed and won them back. On one particular occasion, by the time you admitted that you shouldn’t have seized them, you had destroyed them. You offered me £1800 in compensation. I refused it, as is my right. An independent referee was appointed, as, (you’ll all be familiar with CEMA?), as is provided for in CEMA. And then, the independent referee was cancelled, and I was told, “If you don’t like it, take us to court.” This is what Customs and Excise said.

I took you to court. The court hearing was scheduled for the 1^st of November, at 11:30am. (A letter from my solicitor here.) In the same letter that she told me about the court hearing, where we were finally going to court, after you had tried many tricks to prevent it, (jurisdiction, out of time, etc), we finally got a hearing. And on that day, you offered me £4500, which is what I’d been claiming.

I turned it down. I said, “I want my costs, as well.”

Within a couple of days - (My solicitor said, “you won’t get costs!”) - within a couple of days, she got back to me.

And what happened next? I’m not at liberty to tell you, because I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement with your boss. And now? All of a sudden, revenge?

I know my rights. You cannot stop and search me unless you have reason to believe - (I’ve done a lot of research), - you have reason to believe that I, as an individual, not as a type or profile, am carrying excise goods FOR A COMMERCIAL PURPOSE. Unless you have reason, reason which you have checked, (I’ve got your operations manual, your procedures, your guidance), (Freedom of information act is a wonderful thing), I know the rules, perhaps better than you; that you must follow. And if you want to go to court again, and lose again, like poor old Mr Sked at Glasgow airport did, then – break the rules.

The rules say, unless you have reason to believe that I, as an individual; reason, reason which you have checked, (Not just “he looks like one” – not just “he’s got cigarettes.”) That’s not good enough. Your own literature says, “If we have reason to believe that you are carrying excise goods for a COMMERCIAL PURPOSE, THEN, we may stop and ask you questions.”

Do you have such a reason, BEFORE you stop me? It’s not enough to know that I have some. You have to have reason to believe that they’re for a commercial purpose. If you’ve check my record, you’ll know that over eleven years I’ve had twelve pulls, three seizures, and I’ve won them all back. You have had twelve attempts to establish that I am carrying excise goods for a commercial purpose. You have failed on every single occasion, and the last failure cost you a great deal of money, which I’m not at liberty to divulge; but I can give you the name of your solicitor, who will confirm it.

UKBA  Yep.

ZAPHOD  Right, if you wanna get hold of, Thomas Jagger, for the General Counsel and Solicitor to HM Revenue and Customs, he will tell you that I won.

UKBA  Right, well…

ZAPHOD  Right. Do you have reason to believe that I am carrying excise goods, FOR A COMMERCIAL PURPOSE?

UKBA  Yes.

ZAPHOD  What is the reason?

UKBA  The reason is, these bags have been X-rayed, and they appear to contain nothing but cigarettes. In accordance with the guidelines from the 1^st October, which is 800 cigarettes…

ZAPHOD The guidelines don’t affect the law. Are you familiar with your procedures?

Here’s a good one. Here’s when I got stopped with 117 sleeves of 200. They were seized. They were restored to me. I got a handsome letter from the “Head of Regional Business Services North”, “Thank you for your letter in which you express your dissatisfaction, blah blah blah,” (This is in answer to my subsequent complaint), “Had all the facts been sought and considered, there would almost certainly been a different outcome to this matter…the circumstances of your case have brought to light some inadequacies in the questioning techniques of some of our officers, you will be pleased to know that this has now been addressed. Each of the officers involved has now undergone a training course to improve their technique.”

UKBA  That was something which happened in the year 2000, sir.

ZAPHOD  “There is no evidence to suggest that the officers were guilty of misconduct, however I do accept that are some aspects of this case which could have been handled differently. Thank you for bringing these to our attention. As mentioned earlier, these points have been taken on board and have resulted in identifying a training need and a change in some of our procedures. I am sorry that you have been inconvenienced on this occasion.”

Now, you’re not going on information, because under the Freedom of Information Act, you claim to have no records relating to me. So you haven’t got anything on the computer.

UKBA  I don’t know who you are.

 ZAPHOD “Objective facts and information must support the use of reasonable suspicion or belief.” Are you familiar with this?

UKBA  What’s the date of that, sir?

 ZAPHOD August 2010 “National Occupational Standards for UKBA”. “You must be able to demonstrate that any actions taken are non-arbitrary and fair. You must use legitimate, necessary and lawful actions in dealing with a situation. Carry out any necessary checks on information before acting on reasonable suspicion or belief. You must check information and sources.”

A crucial one, “Officers must not stop someone in the hope of  obtaining grounds through questioning.”

You have to have reason to believe that I am carrying excise goods, -

 for a commercial purpose, -

 before you may stop and search me.

The last time you attempted to stop me in Doncaster, here, the police came. We had this argument with two policemen in attendance for, it was about an hour. Finally, your man said to the police officers, after a final “I’m asking you one more time,” he said, “will you come in here and open your bags?” and I said, “I do not consent.” And he said to the two police officers, “There’s no more I can do, let them go.”

Now, do you want to have a little think? I’ll be willing to wait while you have a little think about your position. Because I’m the sort who takes you to court, and wins.

UKBA I appreciate that.

 ZAPHOD And this conversation is being recorded. So, one more time. Do you have reason to believe that I, as an individual, not a type or generality or trend, am carrying excise goods, FOR A COMMERCIAL PURPOSE? This is going to be used in court.

UKBA  I believe that you are carrying goods in excess of the guidelines, which at the moment is 800 cigarettes, and the officers need to satisfy themselves-

ZAPHOD  Your needs are not my concern. Only- I’m not interested in your needs, your requests, your invitations, only in what the law says I must do, and the law does not say I must – I’m aware of your tricks, in saying “I need, I would like, I request,”.

I do not consent. I do not consent.

Now, I’ll wait while you have a bit of a think about it, but then I’m going to go. I’ll let you have chance to think about what you’re going to do. You might want to check with the local police, they know about what happened last time, and they supported us.

We know the bluff you usually work on. We know it usually works. You’ve hit somebody that the bluff doesn’t work on. Now, you need to adapt, because I will take you to court.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned, anything which you later rely on in court. Could I have your name or number please. A unique identification.

UKBA  Sorry, I can’t understand why you’ve just said that caution. Tell me. The caution’s only applicable to a law enforcement officer.

ZAPHOD  You’re accustomed to giving cautions, aren’t you? Are you a law enforcement officer?

UKBA  I am sir.

ZAPHOD  Really?

UKBA  Yes, do you want to see my warrant to prove it?

 ZAPHOD If I subsequently take you – Yes, I would, I’d like your number, actually.

UKBA  Yeah, it’s there. All our numbers are -

 ZAPHOD UK Border Agency ####.

UKBA  All our numbers, every officer -

ZAPHOD  And you are UK Border Agency #####.

UKBA  We’ll always have us numbers on there at all times.

ZAPHOD  I give you the warning because I, if you give me much more wasted time, I will take you to court.

UKBA  I haven’t spoken to you sir, until just now.

ZAPHOD  Right, may I leave?

UKBA  As far as I’m concerned, you’ve just spoken to our boss, then you’ve said, go away and think about it and come back to me.

ZAPHOD  Okay, he’s had a think. Am I under arrest?

UKBA  Well he’s not come back to you, has he?

ZAPHOD  Well I can’t wait all day. Am I under arrest?

UKBA  Well I’ll go and have a word, see what he’s doing.

 ZAPHOD Well I propose to leave now. No, I’ll give you another five minutes.

UKBA  All I heard was, what he said was, he said he’s gonna come back to you, I don’t know what he’s –

ZAPHOD  I don’t know how long it takes him to have a think about it.

UKBA  I wouldn’t have thought to be long sir, to be honest. There’s no reason for it to be long, if you know what I mean.

 ZAPHOD You’ve had twelve attempts at establishing that I – I go and buy my cigarettes abroad –

UKBA  By we, you mean, -

ZAPHOD  You, that uniform. And if the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand’s doing, threre’s something wrong. I checked in with my passport, you’ve got computer systems, you should know my history. What happened to “Intelligence”? We hear all about it on the TV programs.

UKBA  We do.

 ZAPHOD  And really, it’s a random pull, isn’t it?

UKBA  I – I –

 ZAPHOD And random pulls have been outlawed since 2002. I hope you know that?

UKBA  I do that sir, but, as I’ve tried saying to you, and I’ve said to your co-traveller, I don’t know you sir, I’ve never seen you before, so please don’t get aggressive with me, cos I’m not –

 ZAPHOD I can be quite emphatic, but I’m not aggressive. But –

UKBA  There’s nothing wrong with being emphatic sir, that’s what you believe in. That’s what we, that’s what –

ZAPHOD I’ve been proved right several times.

UKBA  That’s what democracy’s about.

ZAPHOD  Yes. So, I’m going to leave very shortly.

UKBA  My colleague, I believe, may have just gone to make a phone call. So hopefully he’ll be back very shortly.

 ZAPHOD I tell you what, let’s go outside so I can have a cigarette.

UKBA  Well I don’t smoke, personally. He’s just said on the radio he’s speaking to an assistant director, so, Bob’s trying to get hold of an assistant director, so that’s (???) if you know what I mean.

 ZAPHOD You really should know this kind of stuff.

UKBA  But I’ve, I’ve, I’ve never encountered you before sir, I don’t know anything about you to be quite honest.

 ZAPHOD Are you not aware of the rules governing your powers?

UKBA  I’m not aware of what’s happened with yourself, (???)

ZAPHOD But I’m just another member of the public, who actually knows the law.

UKBA  I don’t mind that sir, I don’t have a problem with that, what I’m saying is, I, I don’t know your history with the department, I, I’m not aware of it, so –

 ZAPHOD But you are a UKBA officer, so –

UKBA  I am, sir.

ZAPHOD  - exercising powers, which you ought to know the limit of.

UKBA  I do understand what my powers are sir, that’s why I’ve not –

 ZAPHOD Your powers are to ask people, to invite people, to say that you need, -

UKBA  To discuss their baggage –

 ZAPHOD - but you ought to know the limit of your powers.

We would like to go for a cigarette. If anybody would like to accompany us –

UKBA  Where do you want to put your bags, chaps?

 ZAPHOD Ah, we’ll take them with us.

UKBA  Okay, that’s fair enough. I’m not - that wasn’t, er –

  By all means –

UKBA  That wasn’t an attempt, by the way –

 ZAPHOD -by all means accompany us. We shall stop outside. For a while.

        At 17 minutes, 33 seconds from the stop, ZAPHOD and SH leave the terminal building, and wait outside. All UKBA staff remain inside until 24 minutes, 12 seconds.

UKBA  If you’d like to come back inside please gentlemen, with your bags?

 ZAPHOD Ah no, we, ah, I wouldn’t like to.

UKBA  I’ve spoke with my assistant director, and he, ah, I’m going to ask you to reconsider once again, to allow these officers to ask you questions regarding the contents of your bags.

 ZAPHOD I do not consent.

UKBA  Right, well I’ve been told in those circumstances that I have to seize the goods under section 139.

ZAPHOD  You can’t, not unless you arrest me.

UKBA  Okay. You’re obstructing me? Is that what you’re saying?

 ZAPHOD No. I’m not saying that. I’m saying –

UKBA  Well I’m saying that you are obstructing –

 ZAPHOD If I’m not under arrest, I shall leave, with my goods.

UKBA  Right, well under section thirteen, Customs and Excise management Act, I’m arresting you, cos you’re obstructing me in the performance of my duty, sir.

 ZAPHOD And your number is UK Border Agency, #####. As you’re arresting me, PACE now applies.

UKBA  Yes. Go inside sir, where we can take er, get out of the weather sir?

ZAPHOD  I don’t choose to go inside.

UKBA  Come with me then sir, I choose to go inside. Bring your bag, by all means.

I ask you once again, will you come inside, to the terminal?

ZAPHOD  I do not consent.

UKBA  You do not consent. Who are these gentlemen here? (indicates other waiting passengers).

ZAPHOD  I don’t know.

UKBA  You don’t know?

Could you move along please, gents?

PAX  Sorry?

UKBA  Could you move along?

PAX  Er, we are waiting for our transport.

UKBA  Well could you move along the terminal, please?

PAX  Why?

UKBA  Because I’m talking to these gentlemen here.

 ZAPHOD I don’t have a problem with them.

PAX  We don’t understand many words, because we are from Poland. We don’t understand many words.

 ZAPHOD You can stay there if you want.

PAX  We stay here.

UKBA  What about your colleague, sir? Is he of the same persuasion?

 ZAPHOD You could try speaking to him?

UKBA  Ah well, I’m speaking to you at the moment, okay?

John, would you ask this gentleman please if he’ll come into the terminal?

“JOHN”  Sorry?

UKBA  Would you ask this gentleman please, I’m afraid I don’t know his name, if he would consent to questioning inside the terminal, please.

UKBA  Very well sir, you’re still refusing to bring your bags and come with me into the terminal.

 ZAPHOD I do not consent.

UKBA  Okay. You let go of the bag please.

 ZAPHOD I do not consent. You do not have my permission to touch my property.

UKBA  I don’t need your permission sir. You are now under arrest. Come on. Inside the terminal sir.

 ZAPHOD If I’ve been arrested, you should read me my rights. PACE.

UKBA  Do not have to say anything, unless you wish to do so. If you do say, will be given in evidence. Do you understand?

 ZAPHOD Ah, that’s out of date. Get it right.

UKBA  You’re not obliged to say anything. But it may ha- You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Do you understand the caution?

ZAPHOD  No.

UKBA  Well which part of it did you not understand?

ZAPHOD  I do not stand under the caution.

UKBA  What, you don’t recognise the caution, is that what you’re saying?

 ZAPHOD I don’t stand under it.

UKBA  Could you explain to me what you mean by that, sir? I’m not aware-

ZAPHOD It’s plain English.

UKBA  You do not stand under it.

ZAPHOD Remember, I’ll take you to court. I have done, and I’ve won.

UKBA  I’ll ask you once again sir. Will you come with me?

ZAPHOD   I do not consent.

UKBA  Alright. Well you’ve been arrested so you’ll have to come with me.

ZAPHOD  I am being manhandled by two Customs Officers who are forcing me to go into the airport terminal against my consent. I do not consent. I insist that you let go of me. For the benefit of the tape, there is no response. They are still holding both of my arms, they are dragging me-

UKBA (sounding as though under exertion)  Just walking you back into the baggage examination

ZAPHOD  I do not consent.

(Now 30 minutes from initial stop)