CCPG27280 - Penalty notice: considering whether to issue a penalty notice: example of a decision to charge a penalty

Claire’s business has been trading for many years and is experienced at making customs declarations. The business failed to make three declarations correctly 12 months ago and were issued a Customs Civil Penalty Warning letter (CPWL).

On a recent visit the International Trade compliance officer found that Claire had made errors on four further declarations. This is a contravention under Reason Code 051.

The compliance officer considers the following points.

  • It is less than 3 years since the earliest contravention and less than 2 years since we had evidence of facts about those contraventions. This means we can issue a penalty if we consider one is appropriate. See CCPG11600 for details of time-limits.
  • Claire’s business was responsible for making the declarations and so it is ‘the person’ to be penalised.
  • The contravention falls within the category of poor compliance.
  • We have previously issued a warning letter but this has not resulted in improved compliance.
  • The business has not presented any facts or arguments to suggest that there is a reasonable excuse for the contraventions.
  • Claire’s business is not substantial enough to have a HMRC Customer Compliance Manager (CCM).
  • Overall, action is needed to encourage future compliance. A warning letter has not had the desired effect and a penalty is more appropriate at this stage.

The International Trade compliance officer decides it is appropriate to issue a penalty notice to the business. They complete the Customs Penalty Action Checklist (CPAC), seek their managers’ authorisation, draft the Right to Be heard letter and send the authorised CPAC and draft RTBH letter to the CCP team.

Once letter content and proposed penalty value agreed with PN301 team, the letter is issued to the business, via Central print.

The case officer notifies the PN301 Team of the date of issue, and confirms upload of letter to Caseflow/CRMM and the PN301 Team update the national database.