Mandatory import licence breaches can justify absolute confiscation, with no automatic right to redemption fine.

Imported photocopiers brought in for commercial use without the required import licence or customs clearance permit were treated as prohibited goods and therefore liable to absolute confiscation. The absence of any application for the mandatory authorisation supported the conclusion that redemption on payment of fine was not a matter of right. An asserted practice of allowing release on fine was rejected for want of proof, and the note emphasises that each case depends on its own facts.

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Issues: Whether imported photocopiers brought in without an import licence or customs clearance permit could be absolutely confiscated, and whether redemption on payment of fine was required.

Analysis: The goods were held to be professional equipment imported for commercial purposes. The importers had admittedly neither obtained nor even applied for the required import licence or customs clearance permit. In these circumstances, the import was treated as prohibited, and there was no legal basis for confining confiscation only to goods that were absolutely prohibited. The existence of any alleged practice of permitting release on payment of fine was rejected for want of proof, and each case was held to depend on its own facts.

Conclusion: Absolute confiscation was upheld, and no redemption on payment of fine was allowed.

Final Conclusion: The confiscation order was sustained in full, and the appeals failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Goods imported in contravention of a mandatory import licence or customs clearance requirement may be absolutely confiscated, and redemption fine is not a matter of right.

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