Court orders release of wine/brandy consignment

The release of a consignment of wine which included 100 boxes of brandy seized in December 2011 has been ordered by the Courts which ruled that a company's failure to declare the wine was "a genuine mistake”. Magistrate Marseann Farrugia also ordered importer Patrick Cellars Ltd to pay the difference in stamp duty. The court heard that when the consignment arrived at the Malta Freeport, documents showed there were 2,111 boxes of wines. However, officers also found 100 boxes of brandy which had not been declared. It resulted that while the documents were being processed by the company's shipping agents,, an employee did not realise that the brandy was on the list and listed the whole consignment as wine. After the consignment was seized because the amount of tax paid on the brandy was higher than that on wine, the Commissioner of Inland Revenue initiated proceedings against the importers for their failure to declare the true contents of the consignment. Patrick Cellars Limited imports some 50 to 55 containers of alcohol every year. The magistrate noted that the company did not have the intention to evade tax or fool customs officers and that the mistake had been genuine.