General Chat

On 20th June my cousin and his wife, who went to live in Spain in March, made a return trip home because of illness in the family. They flew from Seville airport to Stansted Airport. At Seville duty-free they bought a bottle of whisky, a bottle of rose water and some contact lens cleaner. All three of these items were taken from them by Customs at Stansted.!! Does anyone know why. ? As they were bought at the official duty-free section at Seville I would have thought it was in order to purchase them and be able to bring them through Stansted in the normal way. I cannot understand this as I personally made the same journey in May and purchased duty-free cigarettes in Seville and brought them through Stansted without any problem at all. Can anyone enlighten us as to why my cousin had his purchases taken away ?

margaret ,i'm assuming they wanted to bring them back as hand luggage ,if that is the case ,it's because you can't take liquids onto the plane ,not even a sealed bottle of water .

Hi Blossom - they had them as hand luggage on the plane from Seville and had bought them at Seville airport duty-free for consumption/use in England. It was only at Stansted customs that they hit the problem. I too bought at Seville airport and brought my cigarettes home in my hand luggage but encountered no problems at all. I know you can';t take liquids in hand luggage unless they have been bought AFTER your hand luggage has been checked and of course theirs was checked at Seville prior to entry into duty-free. As they were bought in duty-free and were still sealed, there was no chance they had been tampered with. We are perplexed and obviously they are not well pleased because had they known this was an issue they would never have purchased the goods,

i can't understand that then margaret .have you contacted the airport ,it does seem a bit strange .

If the items had been confiscated at Seville cos they were in their hand luggage, i could understand it, but the fact they were taken at Stansted sounds abit strange to me. Did they ask?

At the time they were shattered - they had had a long journey and encountered delays, including sitting on the tarmac atSeville for two hours !! - so I am not sure if they queried it or not, but knowing my cousin I would have thought they would have at least questioned it. However, they are going to 'look into it'. Thanks for your replies. We were wondering if there were rules that we were ignorant of which is why I asked the question. Thanks everyone.

This is from the dft website Special information for transit/transfer passengers If your journey involves changing flights at any EU airport, special restrictions apply. You may only take liquid items (for example duty free) through the security search point at your connecting airport if: * they conform to the requirements for passengers departing from EU airports as set out above; or * they have been purchased airside at another EU airport, or on board an aircraft operated by an EU carrier. You will need to show proof of purchase to demonstrate this. Liquid items in excess of 100ml purchased from other airports or on board other airlines may only be carried as hold baggage on the connecting flight. The member states of the European Union are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. Were they asked for receipts?

Penny - I don't know but I am going to send all these replies onto them and it may help them determine what they did wrong. After all, IF they were in the WRONG they won't want to risk a repeat performance will they ? Thank you all for your help.

this is the website I got the info from http://www.dft.gov.uk/transportforyou/airtravel/airportsecurity

Margaret, was Stansted their final destination or were they in transit to another UK airport? that is the crucial question. I am sure if it was their final destination they should not have had it taken off them. If, for example, theyw ere flying on to Glasgow then they cannot pass through stansted with it in their hand luggage. these days we purchase locally and put the bottles in our hold luggage. Ann Glos

You can only move duty paid not duty free stuff within the Common Market. I am not sure but perhaps (PERHAPS) if you declared the goods on arrival in the UK you would be allowed to pay the duty. Failure to declare would lead to confiscation and the liability to a fine. A trip through the green door is not a legal option! Seville (like Heathrow or Gatwick) has an international trade and sells duty free to (say) people going to the USA. Clive

Ann in Glos - hurray. I think you've hit the nail on the head. As their son picked them up fro NEWCASTLE airport, they obviously were boarding another internal flight. Question answered. Thanks very much everyone.

Margaret The only think i can think of is. You flew from Uk-Spain-Uk They flew Spain- Uk-Spain But i still don't know why though

that's the naswer then Margaret, we have seen it happen at Gatwick, couple arrived from somewhere en route to somewhere else with three bottles of alcohol in their luggage and they lost the lot. Ann Glos