Manchester airport sting
Discussion
Returned back to UK Friday evening from Far East to find Manchester Airport crawling with police. Terrorist atrocity ? gangland shooting ? Bullion robbery ? Nahhh nothing like ! 17 police, 6 police vehicles 6 customs/tax people ( whetever they call themselves nowadays ) and 2 road fuel testing units apparently stopping and detaining all diesel vehicles and taking samples.
Fortunately my family picking me up were driving a pertol car else I'd have had another 20 minutes added to their 30 minite delay caused by inefficent immigration and 45 minute baggage handling wait
While South Korea is not well know as a bastion of civil freedoms at least you can get off a plane and out of the airport in less than 10 minutes. And at the risk of offending the good BiB on here their police force do not seem to act as high profile tax collectors.
Fortunately my family picking me up were driving a pertol car else I'd have had another 20 minutes added to their 30 minite delay caused by inefficent immigration and 45 minute baggage handling wait
While South Korea is not well know as a bastion of civil freedoms at least you can get off a plane and out of the airport in less than 10 minutes. And at the risk of offending the good BiB on here their police force do not seem to act as high profile tax collectors.
sean5302 said:
They're starting to clamp down on the use of red diesel.
In Leeds City Centre there are 4 petrol stations selling this fuel at 39p to 41p a litre. A nice 50p a litre saving over the un-redded stuff.
How many tractors do you think there are in the centre of a massive conurbation like Leeds? Loads of taxis, Transits and HGVs. Shocking to watch them all as it's a continuous stream of buyers.
They have notices in the shop area, saying that you have to leave your name and address if you buy 100 litres or more, so everyone buys 99 litres, pays, then goes and gets some more.
>> Edited by sean5302 on Sunday 5th March 10:34
From time to time they have a massive clamp down in Leeds. Often they will set up a check and pull in all the taxis checking not only the vehicle and the fuel but also if the driver is signing on and his / her immigration status.
While I can understand the rationale behind it, the sheer WASTE of police time on what is, in the grand scheme of things, MINOR in the extreme is annoying. No, insulting - the government is in effect saying "our tax is more important than your safety/wellbeing/burglary/broken-into-car/mugging..."
Police have far more important things to do than tax collection.
Police have far more important things to do than tax collection.
havoc said:
While I can understand the rationale behind it, the sheer WASTE of police time on what is, in the grand scheme of things, MINOR in the extreme is annoying. No, insulting - the government is in effect saying "our tax is more important than your safety/wellbeing/burglary/broken-into-car/mugging..."
Police have far more important things to do than tax collection.
The type of people who run around with red derv in their tanks also get up to other things as well. If you read other threads on here you will see that arrests are made for other offences when these chacks are made.
If you checked and anyone was prepared to tell you, you'd almost certainly find they were targetting the taxis. Happens a lot with multi-agency checks. Not only are some taxi drivers not adverse to using the odd drop of red, the predominately cash nature of the business often attracts undesirables. You will find that the police are there to stop them and check driving licences and insurance, the others will be Customs dipping the tanks, Benefits Agency checking to see if they are driving a taxi and also claiming dole, local authority checking taxi licence and plate, VOSA to check roadworthiness, etc. On some checks you will also find Immigration looking for illegals or asylum seekers, Ofcom checking for radio licence compliance and even a drugs dog being given some exercise.
Not all the yellow coats will be police, in fact, I wouldn't expect there to be more police there than police cars. The only time they would be used would be if anyone tried to do a runner.
Not all the yellow coats will be police, in fact, I wouldn't expect there to be more police there than police cars. The only time they would be used would be if anyone tried to do a runner.
Havoc said:
While I can understand the rationale behind it, the sheer WASTE of police time on what is, in the grand scheme of things, MINOR in the extreme is annoying. No, insulting - the government is in effect saying "our tax is more important than your safety/wellbeing/burglary/broken-into-car/mugging..."
Police have far more important things to do than tax collection.
That’s it in a nutshell havoc. The message those who call the shots in the police etc are giving is that the ONLY thing they are really concerned about is ensuring tax is paid and fines are levied and collected – one could see it as simply the maintenance of what is perceived by many to be an increasingly corrupt empire.
And this was a period of snow and ice on the roads and accidents - was this really the highest priority for these officers.
gilbertd said:
Not all the yellow coats will be police, in fact, I wouldn't expect there to be more police there than police cars. The only time they would be used would be if anyone tried to do a runner.
I counted the fluorescent jackets that were labelled ‘Police’ there were 17. There were 6 that were labelled with Customs. And the cars I saw were counted too. There were no dopubt others parked elsewhere. The police were playing the active role. Stopping vehicles, many of them taxis and minibuses but private cars too. The Customs jackets were just pushing sampling battles down the tank fillers and taking them over to the lab while the police detained the vehicle. For what seemed quite a time waiting for the result.
OK this is the first time I’ve seen this in UK but I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world – and I fly 25-35 times a year. This time I’m glad I didn’t book a ( diesel) taxi.
Richard C said:
The Customs jackets were just pushing sampling battles down the tank fillers and taking them over to the lab while the police detained the vehicle. For what seemed quite a time waiting for the result.
We work with Customs a lot of the time and when they take a 'sample' say from a 32,000kgs Tipper it takes 2 mins to get the result. All in all, extremely efficient and worthwhile.
From experience dealing with Minicabs, when we find them on rebated fuel, they are always cutting corners in other departments like Ins and basic mechanical upkeep. Dont think ive ever stopped one that was soley using Rebated fuel.
But then again, dont start me off on the general condition of Mini cabs in 'our' area. Good job the Traffic Police are ' on scene and dealing', to coyne a phrase
Parrot of Doom said:
Do they also check for veggie oil?
*whistles innocently*
Yep they do.
I think that you can use this but you must be registered first.
Last week we stopped a 41,000kgs bulker that was using veggie oil.Sadly, the company werent registered users so RFTU took the vehicle away.
Not only can they detect veggie oil, they are also on the lookout for a diesel/central heating oil mix. I've been on a couple of these checks in a previous life with the Radiocommunications Agency (what is now Ofcom) and will echo the fact that one bent rule usually means there'll be more. We used to reckon on finding something pretty major wrong with one in every four checked. In a lot of cases the vehicles were totally unroadworthy to the point of being dangerous. One that sticks in my mind was the car that was stopped just after it had dropped some passengers off. Upon testing the brakes, a hose burst. It had been swelling nicely under gentle braking but couldn't stand a check on a rolling road. That also had insufficient insurance and was being driven by a man who was also claiming dole.
gilbertd said:
Not only can they detect veggie oil, they are also on the lookout for a diesel/central heating oil mix. I've been on a couple of these checks in a previous life with the Radiocommunications Agency (what is now Ofcom) and will echo the fact that one bent rule usually means there'll be more. We used to reckon on finding something pretty major wrong with one in every four checked. In a lot of cases the vehicles were totally unroadworthy to the point of being dangerous. One that sticks in my mind was the car that was stopped just after it had dropped some passengers off. Upon testing the brakes, a hose burst. It had been swelling nicely under gentle braking but couldn't stand a check on a rolling road. That also had insufficient insurance and was being driven by a man who was also claiming dole.
Ah!
In which case: "Carry on!"
sean5302 said:
Why does HMCE allow garages to sell red diesel right in the centre of large cities? It seems clear that there's no agricultural use there and obvious to all what people are buying it for.
Stating the bleedin' obvious it's because they have a market for it and there is nothing illegal in selling red diesel.
If you put it in your fuel tank you are not committing an offence until you set a wheel on the public highway. Therefore the till operators cannot stop you filling up your fuel tank because it's not illegal!
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