An unusual incident apparently took place at the end of July at the border between Switzerland and Germany. The German customs press site describes the incident as follows
"Customs officers from the main customs office in Singen prevented the smuggling of a 1951 Mercedes Benz convertible worth 240,000 Swiss francs on the Europabrücke bridge in Constance on July 31, 2022.
The customs officers at the main customs office in Singen were not satisfied with the claim that he was only the transporter and that the Mercedes was only being exhibited for ten days at a classic car fair in Brussels. Especially not because the next trade fair of this kind is not due to take place in Brussels until November 2022.
When asked where the required customs documents were, the Moroccan driver surprisingly could not remember who had completed the customs formalities or who the owner of the expensive piece of jewelry on his trailer was. He was only sure that everything was in order and that all taxes had been paid.
As no import documents could be produced even after a long back and forth, the officers seized the vintage convertible and opened criminal proceedings against the transporter on suspicion of tax evasion.
Further investigations revealed that the classic car had been offered for sale in Switzerland for 240,000 Swiss francs. Based on a customs value of around 236,400 euros, import duties of around 16,500 euros were then imposed.
Further investigations are being conducted by the customs investigation office in Stuttgart."
Several things are surprising about this story:
- How did the German customs officers come to the conclusion to assess the Mercedes-Benz 220 Cabriolet B (W187) at the proud value of EUR 236,400 when the car itself is estimated by Classic Data in condition 1 at a maximum of EUR 139,000?
- How did the car even get onto the trailer and through customs?
As always, there is likely to be a before and after story, and the customs offense alone leaves a lot open ...