A Point Fortin businessman has won a lawsuit against the Customs and Excise Division over the seizure of a Rolls Royce luxury car valued at more than $3 million last year.
In a 13-page judgement, Justice Devindra Rampersad said the Division acted illegally when it reversed its decision to release the vehicle to Aleem Ali, owner of Ansad Services Limited, while he negotiated with the Ministry of Finance over application of a modified tax regime introduced for new imported vehicles.
Rampersad said Customs and Excise failed to give reasons for the change in position and failed to inform Ali.
“Regrettably, there is no evidence of this factual situation before the court even though the burden would have been on the defendant to have fully and frankly laid its cards bare and face-up on the table,” he said.
Although he ordered the release of the vehicle to Ali, Rampersad noted that the court had been presented with evidence that the ministry had not received an official application for a tax concession after the company’s initially correspondence, which was used in the lawsuit. As a result, he advised that Customs and Excise would be within its rights to reconsider its original position and again seize the vehicle provided it first communicates properly with the company.
“It would therefore be remiss of this court to order the return of this vehicle without pointing out that it would obviously be open to the defendant to properly review the permission granted by Mr Paul giving the claimants a proper opportunity to be heard on it,” he said.
On the issue of the compensation being claimed by Ali, Rampersad said: “Of course, the court is concerned as to what damages, if any, would have flown from this deprivation because, in any event, the claimants would not have been entitled to use the vehicle in its uncustomed state.”
In the lawsuit, Ali claimed the car was imported from the United Kingdom in May last year and he wrote to the division asking that it be stored in his warehouse in Fanny Village, Point Fortin, while he applied for the tax concession as taxes on new vehicles was increased while the vehicle was in transit. The taxes have since been raised again by Minister of Finance Colm Imbert in the 2017/2018 budget.
Ali claimed that on December 3 last year, a group of Customs and Excise officers visited his premises without a search warrant and seized the vehicle. His attorneys attempted to enquire as to the reasons but got no response.
Ali was represented by Jagdeo Singh, Kiel Taklalsingh, Vivek Lakhan-Jospeh and Ananda Rampersad.