JMW Partner Stephen Topping has secured the cancellation of multiple penalties totalling £54,000 for an international transport company client.

Background

JMW was instructed to appeal against the penalties totalling £54,000 imposed by Border Force against our client, arising from two separate incidents where Border Force considered that the client had breached ss 31A and 32 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 concerning vehicle security and clandestine entrants arriving into the UK.

How did JMW help?

JMW partner Stephen Topping reviewed the case against JMW’s client and discovered that there were significant flaws in Border Force’s evidence.

Stephen attended two appeal hearings on behalf of JMW’s client.

What did the court decide?

In each case, JMW’s client was successful in having all the penalties dismissed, with significant costs orders being made against Border Force. JMW’s client was confident of no wrongdoing and wanted the matters to proceed to appeal hearing.

The first appeal was settled immediately before the appeal hearing started.

The second hearing was decided quickly when the judge determined that Border Force would not be able to establish an entitlement to impose penalty notices in the first place due to lack of evidence.

JMW’s client had £54,000 in penalties cancelled and was awarded a significant proportion of its legal costs.

Stephen said: “The positive outcome for my client in these appeals shows that in circumstances where Border Force insist on the legitimacy of their actions in imposing penalties, but that insistence is irrational and not supported by the evidence, where clients hold their nerve and stay the course there is every possibility that either Border Force will fold when faced with the inevitability of outcome or, where the Border Force persists in pursuit of a penalty, the folly of that course of action shall be exposed and held to account by the Appeal court, with inevitable costs consequences for Border Force. We shall look to optimise costs recovery in such cases to make the Appeal process as costs neutral as possible for clients, with the additional benefit that the cash flow impact of financial penalties that should not have been imposed in the first place is expunged.”

This is the latest in a series of successful appeals on behalf of clients against penalties imposed by Border Force arising from alleged clandestine entry.