CCP04050 - Customs Civil Penalty Warning Letter process: Further contraventions

A financial penalty may be imposed when a trader commits a broadly similar contravention within 2 years of the issue of the Warning Letter and no reasonable excuse has been demonstrated for that contravention.

A ‘broadly similar contravention’ must breach similar provisions as that covered by the original warning letter. Examples of 'broadly similar contraventions' might be

• a further error in a declaration irrespective of the reason for the misdeclaration, or
• any further failures to abide by Customs Freight Simplified Procedure (CFSP) approval conditions whether or not it is the same condition that is being infringed.

While the contravention must be 'broadly similar' it need not necessarily be of the same type/category. For example, errors on import declarations could fall into either the serious error or poor compliance category and would still be broadly similar.

If a visit is made within a short period of a Warning Letter or Penalty Notice being issued, traders must be given a reasonable period of time to improve performance before being charged a penalty or further penalty. What constitutes a reasonable time will be a matter of judgement depending on the circumstances.