I wouldnt suggest Norwich are weak on customs

They got two big hauls of drugs last week.

who needs a phone call when an email will do

they have 4 hrs to act on it

Chill out... All i can say is that i was just putting some facts accross which i know happens. Also wouldn't it look bad on the turkish customs if they let people through who they knew were carrying to much duty free. In MY experiences the turkish authorities don't care how many cigs you are carrying it's the customs in the UK. I was stopped by one last year and he was trying to buy my mobile phone which says alot for turkish customs...

Come on guys be serious.

lets be honest MOST people bring more than they should through customs, I have flew all over the world, Turkey, India, Teneriffe, Maroco, Egypt, Gambia, West indies, Bulgaria, from manchester, Gatwick, Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham and I have never seen any Customs at the airport.

You know that if you do bring more than the law allows you might get stopped, if you want to take that risk, good luck to you. One of the above posts said that it is people who bring back more than they are allowed, that are making it bad for everyone else. Rubbish, Customs are looking for people who bring back, drugs, guns, endangered things, suitecases of fags, THEY ARE NOT CONCERNED WITH PEOPLE WHO BRING BACK 600 OR 800 FAGS.

Come on guys and gals, lets not be alarmist.

Also please be careful while in Turkey !!!!! We went on a trip to Rhodes. On our return, we left the Cattamarran at Marmaris and a young couple with a baby were stopped. They must have been well over the limit because ALL the bags were emptied out, and, they weren't allowed back on the bus to Icmeler !!!! I still wonder what happened to them. They should have known better with a baby. Happy hols. Anna xxxxxxxx

according to you robert customs dont exist .i have been to most of the countries you mention ,and more and i can tell you they do exist

H&M customs are not at every airport all the time.
However just because you can't see them doesn't mean that they are not there, part of the value of being invisible is that you can never be certain.
As sais above they are not particularly intereted in someone with a couple of hundred cigs too much but having seen how some people get carried away in the duty free at dalaman I'm not surprised that they are ;ulling passengers from turkey flights and not just the usual Canaries flights.
If anyone is REALLY desperate to get cheap cigs, why not just book a cheap weekend in spain and bring back a legal suitcase back?

del949

My point Blue was not that Customs don't exist or that they are not at every airport. It was merely to say that they arn't bothered about with the likes of you or me that have just bought back 600 fags instead of 200 or an extra bottle of booze more than we should have done. They have bigger and better fish to fry.

Customes do a good and worthwile job, but they are use sparingly, as in most airports there are several planes landing at more or less the same time, so how can they be checking every plane from every destination all of the time. the chances of being caught are with more than you shold have is pretty small.

robert i am not talking about 600 fags either i have seen peopl with thousands of them in there cases getting caught , what people have to realise ie most airports in turkey are military and ithey take it into there heads they can be very sticky to say the least,as i have said before it does not bother me as i dont smoke or drink but people getting caght on a regular basis will affect others who take only 600 or so ,look back on some of the earlier posts on ht and you will read about people having there stuff confiscated ,

Blue I accept what you say there mate, but if people take more than they should into any country, then they have to be prepared to get caught, if you take only what yu are allowed to take, then there is no problem. people have to learn Customs are there for a reason, but if you have nothing to hide, then there is no problem.

As has been said before, duty free shops and airways sell you more than you are allowed, so if they stopped, then again there would be no problems.

I allway bring more back than I am allowed (not large quantities), but still more and, as I have said, I have never seen a Customs person on there desk, but I am prepared, either I pay the duty or the goods will be confiscated, I know that, so no problem. But I accept your point about idiots bringing cases of fags back from places like Teneriffe (PRATS).

i once arrived at glasgow airport about 4 in the morning from tenerife there was tis guy stopped by the sustoms they emptying a case load of fags on to the desk ,and i mean a full case load ,there was nothing else in the case but cigs the guys wife and two kids were standing next to him crying ,as far as i am concerned nothing is worth that ,

We went on a day trip to Bodrum from Kos and I had my carrier bag searched by the Customs in Kos on arrival back in Kos All I had in it were two prepacked trays of cherries and a packet of turkish delight The Customs man in Kos gestured that they would be delicious returned them to my carrier and gave them back to me with a big smile his face I must hastened to add that I had not bought anything else - anbron

come on guys chill out

of course customs are after everyone who is overloaded.

I bet that the extra 400 fags here and there that are caught , prevent all those warned via media , mouth from offending.

if you have too much you may get caught

Can I just say, if we were charged a fair price here in the UK for cigs like other countries are the problem of bringing over the limit wouldn't be a problem and the custom peeps could do a better job of catching the real villans, drug/firearms dealers ect

we have just come back from turkey and i noticed this year they put your passport through when buying goods so they do know how much you have bought, none of us in our party smoke and we only bought 1 litre of whiskey for a gift between 4 of us so not everyone tries to sneak extras in or even buys up to the allowed limit. we never usually buy any duty free and go away 4-5 times a year, we have been stopped once in the last 10 years even though he didnt have any fags,drink etc, at easter we just got asked by customs as we walked through have we bought any fags and that was it when we said no. on 1 holiday we met a family that bought loads of fags to sell when he got home to cover the cost of his flights, that was up to him but i wouldnt risk that, he said he did it every hol. some flights even have hidden cameras on board to watch people

As I said in my earlier post, i think everyone is geeting pretty hate up about customs.

Think about it, every hour at the average airport, say Birmingham, 20 or so flights (maybe more) land, around 5,000 people (again maybe more) go through customs, they can't possibly stop everyone. Yes sometimes they are on show and maybe stop a few people from a particular flight, sometime they just watch from a back room, sometime they are not there at all. it you bring back more than you should, you have to be prepared to either pay the duty or forfeight the goods, simple as that. i allways bring back a little more than i'm allowed, simply because, outside europe the limits are so small.

As for your your passport being marked when you but fags, booze etc, that is rubbish. You buy 400 fags in Turkey, another 200 on the plane comming back (even if they did mark your passport, it would only show 200), but in fact you would have 600.

Custome work on the principle that if they are seen searching a few people, word of mouth starts and other people think to them selves, is it worth it. Well most of the time you won't get searched, stopped or even see a customes person.

So come on guys, if you bring back more than you should (good luck to you, most people do), then you should be prepared for the consequenses if you are stopped, simple as that.

i didnt say they knew how many you bought in total from elsewhere when they swipe your passport,only what you buy from the duty free shop, because some friends of ours went back to buy something else a bit later on and they werent allowed to as it was over the allowance limit so its not rubbish at all

No the comment you made was, They swiped your friends passpost when he bought some fags, you didn't say it was in duty free. Anyway they don't when you buy fags or booze on the planes and they didn't when I bought some cigars and booze when I came back from Bodrum in May. So the idea that when you buy fags or booze you passport gets swiped every time is rubbish, I except it may be the case here in UK, but not every aiport does that, ce3rtainly the air-companies don't give a damm, as long as you spend your dosh on there planes.

But lets not fall out over this trivial issue, did you enjoy your hols. I am going again in September for 14 days ( and yep I will probably bring a little more than I am allowed back), for my own enjoyment.

im afraid your wrong about it being uk, they now swipe your passport in the duty free shops in dalaman airport ,if you look on dalaman airport thread you will see someone else has also mentioned this, maybe i didnt make myself too clear, you can of course buy extras elsewhere , we will leave it there as i dont know about bodrum but dalaman have a new airport open now and i was only referring to dalaman airport

yes i had a fab holiday thanks and looking forward to going back to turkey in oct for my 4th visit this year, where are you going in sept

Elliemeg,
was it in England where they swiped your passport or in turkey?

I would be surprised if the turkish authorities are enforcing EU/ GB rules at their side.
There is no limit to what you can bring out of turkey. or is there ?
So far I have never been stopped at a british airport by customs, but get stopped regularly when I take the car to Belgium and Germany.

del949