CriminalEndangered birds - illegal importation into EU - subsequent importation into UK offenceR v Sissen: CA (Kennedy LJ, Longmore and Ouseley JJ): 8 December 2000The defendant was charged with four offences of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a restriction on the importation of goods, contrary to s.170(2)(b) of Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, in that he had imported into the UK nine macaws, which were endangered species strictly regulated throughout the EU under Council Regulation (EEC) No.

3616/82 and Council Regulation (EC) No.

338/97.However, it was not contended that the point of entry of any of the birds into the EU was the UK.The defendant was convicted.

He appealed against his conviction on the grounds that he could not be prosecuted in England for failing to present an import permit within the EU if the point of entry into the EU were not the UK.Simon Farrell and Anya Lewis (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the defendant.

Simon Draycott and Vivian Walters (instructed by Solicitor, Customs and Excise) for the Crown.Held, dismissing the appeal, that the council regulations were 'enactments' for the purposes of the 1979 Act; that the regulations restricted the entry of certain goods into the EU as a whole, without differentiation between states; that the territorial scope of the 1979 Act turned on the scope of the restriction in the enactment in question; that the regulations were part of UK law and took effect under the 1979 Act according to their terms, rather than being cut down in their terms by the Act; and that, accordingly, it was an offence under s.170 of the 1979 Act for a person to be knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the restriction, in the regulations, on the importation of these birds into the EU, whatever the country of entry into the EU might be.

(WLR)