JMW’s Commercial Road Transport team has secured yet another victory for operators in its latest clandestine entrants civil penalty appeal.

JMW’s team (Laura Hadzik, Partner and Head of Commercial Road Transport, and Hajra Afzaal, Solicitor) and Matthew Howarth, Counsel of Lincoln House Chambers, were instructed by a Hungarian haulage company to challenge a five-figure civil penalty imposed by Border Force who alleged that two (2) clandestine entrants had been found concealed in one of the operator’s trailers.

JMW’s team argued that there was a lack of evidence to demonstrate that there was any liability to a penalty for either the operator or its driver and that no penalty should have been imposed.

At the hearing, having considered all the evidence and the detailed legal representations submitted by JMW’s team, Border Force agreed that there was no liability to a penalty. The Court therefore upheld the operator’s appeal, the penalties against both the operator and driver were cancelled and Border Force were ordered to pay the operator’s legal costs of the appeal (costs which are ultimately borne by the public purse!). 

JMW’s Commercial Road Transport team has market-leading expertise advising UK and international haulage and coach operators in relation to clandestine entrant civil penalties and has a proven track record for successfully securing the cancellation of penalties. 

This case represents another significant victory for operators and provides a further reminder that Border Force must prove the grounds for imposing penalties exist in each case. It also illustrates the benefit to operators of seeking specialist legal advice from sector-specific experts who are able to put forward the technical legal arguments that were ultimately successful in this (and numerous previous) cases.

It is, however, disappointing (and the Judge was critical of the fact) that the case made it all the way to the court room, as Border Force had been aware of the operator’s grounds for challenging the penalty from the outset of the case some months earlier. They could have therefore cancelled the penalty far sooner than on the morning of the hearing itself and before further time was spent, costs were incurred and Court time was used dealing with the matter!