"Dear SH, thank you so much for your help. My wife and l have just returned from holiday and when we arrived at East Midlands Airport where stopped by Customs. We bought 25 sleeves of Silk Cut (mine) and 15 sleeves of Menthol Superkings (hers) which will last us both for about a year. The officer asked us if we had any tobacco or cigarettes and we replied yes. He started to ask more questions but stopped when l handed him our statement of truth as advised by you. He started to read it and asked why we had done this and l said because we had been advised to. He then told us to wait and then went off with our statement of truth. We waited for about 20 mins and when he returned he just said we can go and tried to hand me back our statement. l told him that that copy was his and would he please sign to say he'd received it but he refused and put the statement on the table in front of me. l took his number but he would not give me his name. We then left and left the statement on the table. Other holidaymakers that had been stopped at samie time as us were still being questioned and if it wasn't for you we would have been to.Thanks again for all your help and we shall sing your praises to all our friends.
Mark and Kathy ********* "
We are really happy for Mark and Kathy but feel we should add a cautionary note. We cannot guarantee that the Statement of Truth will always give this result. This is because you can and do get UKBA Officers that will confiscate your goods no matter what. lt once happened to Zaphod and the UKBA Officer that was
interviewing interrogating (if that's possible) him simply refused to look at any of Zaphods documents or evidence. This officer was confiscating Zaphods goods and nothing was going to stop him. Zaphod did get his goods back on appeal.
So, be aware of this and don't panic if they do this to you. Stay calm, stick by your Statement of Truth and do NOT sign their notebook! Make sure all your goods are documented correctly on the C156 Notice you must receive and all the UKBA Officers details are there too incl the appeal address.Go home and put your appeal in as soon as possible. We have never lost an appeal.
Enough of that, back to Mark and Kathy .....
