CUSTOMS AND EXCISE AND DIVERSION FRAUD

Motion Text

That this House notes the Government's insistence on introducing strip stamps on bottles of spirits in the face of widespread opposition; further notes the ongoing police investigation, Operation Gestalt, relating to claims of smuggling duty-free alcohol from a bonded warehouse, London City Bond; further notes that the owner of the warehouse, Mr Alfred Allington, was a registered Customs informant from 1994 but that this information was deliberately withheld in a number of court cases; concludes that strip stamps are being introduced because of difficulties at the highest level of Customs and Excise rather than to prevent fraud as the Government claimed; and therefore calls on the Government to abandon plans to introduce strip stamps and for the Economic Secretary to the Treasury to make a statement to the House on this matter at the earliest opportunity.