We've finally received the UKBA data held on Mr/Mrs Donny by way of a Subject Access Request. This allows us to go back to the Jan 2012 court case in Doncaster where we beat the UKBA and study it more closely. Not 'it' exactly but the main witness against Mr/Mrs Donny ... Hull UKBA Officer Alistair Graham Fields. This was the Officer who produced all the 'evidence' and had seized Mr/Mrs Donny's goods.
Officer Alistair Graham Fields took the witness stand and was sworn in. He stated that he'd been a Customs Officer since 2004. His witness statement began with the following "This statement consisting of 7 pages each signed by me is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and l make it knowing that, if it is tendered in evidence, l shall be liable to prosecution if l have wilfully stated in it anything which l now to be false or do not believe to be true'
His witness statement contained a written copy of his notebook and his account of the interview when he stopped Mr/Mrs Donny on the 18th May 2011 at Doncaster Airport. There were glaring inconsistencies in his account. Not only was the arithmetic completely wrong (surprisingly duplicated exactly by his fellow Officer Stephen Blake) but he'd added an extra 6000 cigarettes supposedly brought in by Mr/Mrs Donny on a previous occasion. Under cross-examination he retracted this and said it was an error. Not surprisingly there was no mention either of his aggressive and intimidatory manner claimed by Mr/Mrs Donny when he had initially interviewed and seized Mr/Mrs Donny's goods on the 18th May 2011.
There is no need to dwell on this as it is viewed by the court as hearsay because there was no audio recording of the interview (Note :- see how important it is to record all UKBA interviews). Another strange statement from Officer Alistair Graham Fields whilst under cross-examination was that he had no idea what the A-J questions were. These are the questions UKBA ask people when they are stopped and interviewed. They have always been known as the A-J's but Officer Fields said they were the I-X's!!!! Anyway, enough of this, let's get to his 'evidence'.
Officer Fields produced this :-
Officer Alistair Graham Fields took the witness stand and was sworn in. He stated that he'd been a Customs Officer since 2004. His witness statement began with the following "This statement consisting of 7 pages each signed by me is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and l make it knowing that, if it is tendered in evidence, l shall be liable to prosecution if l have wilfully stated in it anything which l now to be false or do not believe to be true'
His witness statement contained a written copy of his notebook and his account of the interview when he stopped Mr/Mrs Donny on the 18th May 2011 at Doncaster Airport. There were glaring inconsistencies in his account. Not only was the arithmetic completely wrong (surprisingly duplicated exactly by his fellow Officer Stephen Blake) but he'd added an extra 6000 cigarettes supposedly brought in by Mr/Mrs Donny on a previous occasion. Under cross-examination he retracted this and said it was an error. Not surprisingly there was no mention either of his aggressive and intimidatory manner claimed by Mr/Mrs Donny when he had initially interviewed and seized Mr/Mrs Donny's goods on the 18th May 2011.
There is no need to dwell on this as it is viewed by the court as hearsay because there was no audio recording of the interview (Note :- see how important it is to record all UKBA interviews). Another strange statement from Officer Alistair Graham Fields whilst under cross-examination was that he had no idea what the A-J questions were. These are the questions UKBA ask people when they are stopped and interviewed. They have always been known as the A-J's but Officer Fields said they were the I-X's!!!! Anyway, enough of this, let's get to his 'evidence'.
Officer Fields produced this :-
In court, Officer Alistair Graham Fields stated that this was from the UKBA database and showed the Schedule of Travel for Mr/Mrs Donny. In our view, this has the look of something produced by a 5yr old and printed in big bold font to look important and nothing more. Even ignoring that, there are 3 glaring faults:-
1. It shows travel 'details' of a non-existent trip to Fuengirola in May 2010.
2. It shows a non-existent import of 20,000 cigarettes from this trip.
3. It does not show the trip to Zurich in June 2010 where Mr/Mrs brought just 200 cigarettes each back as Switzerland is not in the EU. So why no mention? It's there in the written statements of the interview. Mrs Donny categorically states 'Benidorm Feb 11, Menorca Sep 2010, Spain July 2010 and Switzerland June 2010. (underlined towards bottom of page). The more cynical amongst us would say that to include it would not back up one of Officer Field's reasons for seizure "Regular traveller, balance of probabilities brought in cigarettes on previous travels abroad"
Officer Alistair Graham Fields was pressed in court time and time again where this Schedule of Travel came from. He maintained that it was from the UKBA database. When asked to produce a printout,Officer Fields stated that neither the court nor the Donnys could have it because it was confidential operational intelligence and was not in the public interest to make it available!
When Officer Field was further pressed as to who printed this Schedule of travel out he started look very uncomfortable in our eyes. At one stage, he said it could've been him or someone else but he couldn't remember who.
Judge Manning then stopped the court case for lunch. (At the end of the case in his summing up he said that he fully expected the UKBA to take this opportunity to produce a printout from the UKBA database as Doncaster Airport is only 7 miles away. Nothing was forthcoming.)
We won the case because UKBA could not produce any actual evidence at all. Also we showed that the public can request this data from UKBA database. We did this by producing an example of such but of course at that time it was not Mr/Mrs Donny's data ... it was ours. We also produced Mrs Donny's worksheet which showed she was at work at the Council offices during May 2010. We can now go further because now we have the true data on Mr/Mrs Donny.
The travel to Fuengirola in May 2010 simply does not exist and neither does the alleged import of 20,000 cigarettes. The trip to Switzerland is on the database too as are the rest and in rather more detail than Officer Field's Schedule of Travel.
First page of Mr/Mrs Donny's Subject Access Request shows all stop and searches including the results. They also have reference numbers with ties them into the complete details of the stop and searches including copy of the notebooks.
The UKBA database schedule of travel shows passenger name, gender, d.o.b, passport number, embarkation airport & disembarkation airport including dates, flight number. What it does not show is the resort ... there is no Fuengirola Airport! Nor Benidorm Airport! The database shows the airports only!
Here's the Switzerland trip. Compare this to Officer Alistair Graham Fields 'data' :-
You can see the rest of the data on Mr/Mrs Donny's travel here. You'll note they tie in exactly with what was said in the interview ... 'Benidorm Feb 11, Menorca Sep 2010, Spain July 2010 and Switzerland June 2010. Not forgetting the trip to Rhodes where they returned from on the 18th May 2011.
Airport codes are DSA (Doncaster Robin Hood Airport), EMA (East Midlands Airport), RHO (Rhodes Airport), ALC (Alicante Airport, Spain), MAH (Mahon Airport, Menorca), AGP (Malaga Airport, Spain), BHX (Birmingham Airport), ZRH (Zurich Airport, Switzerland).
As l mentioned before, Judge Manning commented on the lack of evidence that was failed to be produced by the UKBA. This was despite him giving them an opportunity to do so by having a long lunch break and Doncaster Airport only being 7 miles away.
He also said something else, he said "If this data had turned up from Doncaster Airport and it was found Mr and Mrs Donny were lying ... he would've charged them with perjury!
Given with what we know now, one wonders how Judge Manning would react if he too was made aware of the documented facts????
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One also has to wonder about other aspects of this case. Mr and Mrs Donny sent in a very detailed Appeal Against Seizure long before this ever got to court. their appeal in our view more than adequately addressed all the reasons for seizure Officer Alistair Graham Fields gave.
However, Officer G A Wood at the National Post Seizure Unit in Plymouth took no heed and rubber stamped Officer Fields seizure and proceeded with Condemnation Proceedings.
This now goes into the hands of Barrister Ambureen Chaudray for and on the behalf of the Directorate of Border Revenue at the UKBA Legal Team, Beckett House, London.
