Taking Lemon Iced Tea Through Customs

[a2396]

Although she may not have imported amphetamines into the country, she may still have technically breached the law through a false customs declaration pertaining to the tea containers.

1) Did she provide a false declaration? She may have declared it anyway, not being sure whether it is to be allowed or not. Hence she is not prosecuted nor fined for a false declaration.

2) Nestea is in dried powdered form; it is not necessarily illegal nor banned. As it says on the form, when in doubt, tick "YES-something to declare". I have brought in Chinese tea to Australia, declared it and it was no problem.

Whilst I understand the officers have a job to do, sometimes they tend to get a little over-excited like their little sniffer dogs.

Tea is a restricted/dutiable item in Australia?

[Donnyboy]

Of course, it was just the undeclared tea.

Racial profiling doesnt exist in Australia.

When you see some of the crap that Asian's try to bring into our country its fair enough I say. Insect infected herbs etc. I wouldnt take much for it to ruin our agriculture.

When I come back into the country I always make sure Im the one with the home made curry paste, dried shrimp etc. TG gets checked. I walk straight through.

what? so its ok for you to take stuff (or crap as you say) back to yr country but not asians?

[Donnyboy]

Dear friend

why would anyone believe/or buy something that stated with Dear Friend?

[ballpoint]

I get the feeling if this had have been an Aussie thrown in jail for bringing tea into Thailand, this thread would be at least 10 pages long by now.

[ignis]

I have just been to Perth AUS.. At airport BKK bought a bottle of Pepsi Max to have while waiting to board… That was a NO NO and at the Thai scanner picked it up and had to throw it away

In Perth it has many signs + pictures + bins to throw away item not allowed + it stated many time that all items NOT allowed would be found + the penalties.….

After passport control, a Lady checked my customs forms and took it said something but did not hear what, went into the next room and stood in line with lots of others, there bags were put in the machines and most had items some loads of item not allowed, only when it was my turn did I find that I should have gone right and not into the queue..

So it would appear that no matter how many signs and pictures of items not allowed loads of people still take them.

[saintofsilence]

The customs guys got it wrong and she was locked up for 5 days , now time for her to claim 100k plus for damages

[neverdie]

^Of course she didnt, it wouldnt of been an issue if she didnt have the stuff hiden and carry on like a prat about having her bag searched and all that (Im reading between the lines ).

This is nearly as silly as what H2o wrote.

It seems clear that you find it hard to understand what is written in the lines, let alone between them. Acting in good faith, and being wrong, are two separate issues - you can have all the good faith in the world (and I am not saying the federal plods in this case didn't), but when someone spend 5 days in jail because they got it wrong, in my view that person is entitled to compensation.

I also note that customs are reassessing their initial tests - which I would have thought was well overdue if there had been problems with lemon tea before. And if that is the position, it would make the case for compensation even stronger.

Nearly jack, nearly, but i have no doubt theres probably some truth in it. Anyway, in your eyes the cops are always wrong.....can you imagine how safe the community would be if you and your wish washy mates had their way? God help us jack, god help us.

[neverdie]

Although she may not have imported amphetamines into the country, she may still have technically breached the law through a false customs declaration pertaining to the tea containers.

1) Did she provide a false declaration? She may have declared it anyway, not being sure whether it is to be allowed or not. Hence she is not prosecuted nor fined for a false declaration.

2) Nestea is in dried powdered form; it is not necessarily illegal nor banned. As it says on the form, when in doubt, tick "YES-something to declare". I have brought in Chinese tea to Australia, declared it and it was no problem.

Whilst I understand the officers have a job to do, sometimes they tend to get a little over-excited like their little sniffer dogs.

Tea is a restricted/dutiable item in Australia?

Any foods/liquids need to be declared at customs for inspection. most stuff like that wont get thru & many fresh foods, seeds etc must be dumped in the bins before entering. Its well known and advertised, esp at the airports.

Australia is an island, the livelyhoods of many australians rely on customs keeping the crap out of the place.

[wylergnu]

Of course, it was just the undeclared tea.

Racial profiling doesnt exist in Australia.

When you see some of the crap that Asian's try to bring into our country its fair enough I say. Insect infected herbs etc. I wouldnt take much for it to ruin our agriculture.

When I come back into the country I always make sure Im the one with the home made curry paste, dried shrimp etc. TG gets checked. I walk straight through.

what? so its ok for you to take stuff (or crap as you say) back to yr country but not asians?

The crap I bring in doesnt threaten my country, but it is for my asian girlfriend. Back OT, Im sure customs officers profile likely offenders. This would go for drug smuggling as well as food items. I guess you could call this racist, but then Australia is no doubt quite a racist country. Just look at what happened to that poor Indian doctor here last year. Similar to Thailand but without the smiles. The police stuffed up and probably held her so long because they refuse to believe they are ever wrong.

[Douggie Style]

my bet is it is an unlawful arrest/detention and she will get compensation once the lawyers make a fuss

[jackspratt]

Any foods/liquids need to be declared at customs for inspection.............

No they don't.

Foodstuffs, yes.

Liquids, no. There is no requirement to declare, for example, bottled water, or alcohol (unless you have excessive quantities).

Be careful what you read between the lines.

Edited March 20, 2010 by jackspratt

[Sheryl]

As I understand it, this wasn't a liquid, it was a powder mix.

The initial mistake is understandable; a dog and perhaps a rapid test gave a false positive so the woman was temporarily detained.

But that it took the Feds 5 full days to distinguish iced tea mix from amphetamines :D ..not defensible and also not IMO a very good indication re the quality of drug enforcement staff (or wahtever they are called in Oz).

It should have been possible to sort this out within a few hours at most.

[neverdie]

Any foods/liquids need to be declared at customs for inspection.............

No they don't. Did you read that between the lines?

Foodstuffs, yes.

Liquids, no. There is no requirement to declare, for example, bottled water, or alcohol (unless you have excessive quantities).

Okay jack, i used the incorrect term, tea is definately something you need to declare & if it was prewrapped package stuff then theres a good chance that customs are going to allow you to keep it, depending of course on exactly what it is.

Wake up Jack, everybody knows in this day and age, you cant get liquids onto the plane unless their like duty free etc......you knew what i meant, ur just trying to be jack again.

[PhilHarries]

Taking tea into Australia? They probably thought she was a pommie, lucky she didn't get transported back to Southampton.

[neverdie]

Be careful Phil, thats one of jack's prize clients your talking about