Tax

Zelazowska v The Director of Border Revenue (EXCISE DUTY RESTORATION OF VEHICLE (see also EXCISE APPEAL) : Dismissed on facts)

[2015] UKFTT TC TC04532First-tier Tribunal (Tax)2015

Get the AI brief for this case

Generate a structured brief — facts, issues, held, reasoning, and significance — for this case in seconds. Or browse the verbatim judgment via the source links below.

Quick orient — first passages from judgment

EXCISE DUTY � seizure of vehicle � whether decision not to restore was unreasonable � no � appeal dismissed

Mr Richard Evans of Counsel, instructed by the Cash, Forfeiture and Condemnation Legal Team of the Home Office, for the Respondents

This is Ms Zelazowska�s appeal against the refusal of the Border Force to restore a car which had been used for smuggling tobacco. The driver of the car was Mr Giermak, who at the time was Ms Zelazowska�s partner.

We begin by explaining the legal background. When a vehicle is seized by the Border Force there are two separate issues:

(1) Has the vehicle been lawfully seized, for instance because it has been used for smuggling?

Auto-extracted from BAILII. Full structured brief in progress — the source links below give you the verbatim judgment in the meantime.

Read the full judgment elsewhere

Multiple official and mirror sources — pick whichever loads cleanly on your network.

More Tax cases

Wood & Anor v Revenue and Customs (Stamp Duty Land Tax - rate of SDLT applicable - whether Table A or Table B - whether the house and land included land that was not residential property - whether all of land was, or formed part of, grounds of house - Finance Act 2003, ss 55, 116)

[2026] UKFTT TC 265

Trees v Revenue and Customs (VAT - penalties - director's liability notice (DLN) - section 60 and 61 VATA 1994 - Kittel appeal in 2020 - HMRC expressly not pleading dishonesty)

[2026] UKUT TCC 92

Alesen Direct Solutions Ltd v Revenue and Customs (Company undertaking construction work; VAT assessment; hardship application; company made advances to related entities/persons; hardship denied)

[2026] UKFTT TC 398

Rodrigues v Revenue and Customs

[2026] UKUT TCC 75

Lawrence Rawlinson v The Commissioners for HMRC

[2026] UKFTT 45 (TC)

COMFG Holdings Ltd v Welsh Revenue Authority / Awdurdod Cyllid Cymru

[2026] UKFTT 237 (TC)

Common Room

Discussion

0 comments · About the Common Room →

No comments yet — start the discussion.

Voted-best comments help future students and feed Caselaw's AI study tools.

This case is reproduced verbatim from the public judgment published by The National Archives under the UK Government's Open Government Licence v3.0. If you appear in this case and believe it should not be published — for example because your conviction was quashed on appeal, you have statutory anonymity, or for other privacy reasons — request removal here.

Tax