Offshore off-licence

The offshore off-licence is the name coined by the media to describe a 2004 venture to bring "tax- and duty-free" alcohol and cigarettes to Teesside, England, by selling the imported goods from a boat anchored just outside the UK's 12-mile limit.

[1] Two businessmen, Phil Berriman[2][3] and Trevor Lyons, a maritime law expert,[4] used the latter's 72-foot staysail schooner Rich Harvest to transport large quantities of cigarettes and spirits from Heligoland (a tiny island in the German Bight, off Jutland, which is outside the EU VAT area) to Hartlepool.

On appeal at Middlesbrough Crown Court, the judge held that magistrates were wrong, and ordered the goods to be returned, saying both that the "offshore off-licence" was not unlawful and that HMRC's seizure of the cargo was wrong-headed and unconscionable.

She then sailed to the Cape Verde islands, crewed by young amateur yachtsmen who had signed on without pay to gain ocean experience.

On arrival at Cape Verde, the crew (who claimed to be unaware of the presence of any contraband cargo) were arrested, convicted and given heavy jail sentences.

[16][17][18] The film showed that after the Customs seized the vessel was seized and found to have drugs aboard, Rich Harvest somehow sank in Mindelo harbour, on the island of São Vicente, Cape Verde, even though the yacht was in the care and custody of the authorities Since these events, Berriman has written two published books: first, about his prior brush with the law for cannabis smuggling;[19] and secondly, a personal account of the offshore off-licence episode.