A court has ordered a business man to pay just under a quarter of a million euro to the Comptroller of Customs, together with interest on this amount from 1993, after finding that he had imported merchandise without paying the customs duty due.

Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon in the First Hall of the Civil Court delivered judgment following an action filed by the Comptroller of Customs in 1993 against Sidney Ellul Sullivan in his personal capacity and on behalf of Eloise Limited.

The court said out that it had resulted from the testimony produced that in the three years between 1989 and 1991, Eloise Ltd had imported merchandise without paying the Customs Duty that was due.

Although the company had pleaded that this was not the case the court found that a number of documents had been falsely stamped by defendants.

The Magistrates Court had originally acquitted Mr Ellul Sullivan of the criminal charges brought against him at the request of the Customs Department, but judgment was overturned on appeal.

The Court of Criminal Appeal imposed a two year suspended jail sentence on Mr Ellul Sullivan and ordered him to pay the Customs Department Lm489,954 which sum was made up of the duty due (Lm62,171), the levy due (Lm44,432) together with a fine consisting in double the value of the imported goods. Mr Ellul Sullivan had been given three years within which to pay this fine.

The Comptroller of Customs then filed another court case to get defendants to pay the damages the department had suffered. These damages were established by the court-appointed accountant, to amount to €245,423 being the sum that Eloise Ltd claimed to have paid in duty but which had not in fact been paid.

The court said there was no evidence that Mr Ellul Sullivan had paid the sums he had been fined by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

The court therefore found in favour of the Comptroller of Customs and ordered Mr Ellul Sullivan and Eloise Ltd to pay €248,320 in damages