msr said:
Milesy said:
Home Distillation is not illegal because of tax reasons for the Goverment regardless of what some people may say.
References please.
From
http://homedistiller.org/
I took the trouble to look this up a while ago in 'Halsbury's Laws of England' which is the legal encyclopaedia used by the courts and lawyers in general. It is very authoritative. Basically, the situation is this. You can't distill alcohol without a rectifier's licence (Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979 s18(1)).
If you do and are caught you will be liable to pay the duty on the alcohol in the spirits you make (currently £19.56 per litre) and to pay a fine of whichever is the greater of £250 and 5% of the duty payable. (Finance Act 1994 s9(2)). Forget getting a license. There are rules about how large (or rather how small) the still can be which would render any home device unlawful and in any case you'd have to pay the duty which sort of defeats the object. As far as I can ascertain, you are not committing a criminal offence by distilling alcohol. All the above are civil matters. I assume that Customs and Excise would seize all your product and your equipment too.
In short, you might say that the consequences of a raid on a genuine hobby distiller making liquor for him or herself would be embarrassing but not necessarily disastrous. As for the likelihood of getting caught; well I have never heard of a case in my lifetime (I'm 47). My own guess is that the Customs an Excise are far too busy chasing drugs and liquor smugglers and dealing with VAT fraud to bother with a small time....... Hang on, there's someone at the door.
msr
May I, msr, refer you to s25(1) ALDA79 "Save as provided by or under this Act, any person who, otherwise than under and in accordance with an excise licence under this Act so authorising him - (a) manufactures spirits, whether by distillation of a fermented liquor or by any other process, or (b) uses a still for distilling, rectifying or compounding spirits; or (c) distils or has in his posession any low wines or feints; or (d) not being a vinegar maker, produces or makes or has in his posession any wort or wash fit for distillation , shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of level 5 on the standard scale".
Additionally, ss170 & 170A CEMA79 have some very stern things to say about "Penalties for the fraudulent evasion of duty etc" and the "Offence of handling goods subject to unpaid excise duty" - These are criminal offences too.
Whilst s9 FA92 does indeed impose civil penalties in many of the excise regimes where criminality is not suspected, HMRC does carry a FOGB stick. s170CEMA79 offences carry penalties of up to 7 years in jail on indictment, a FOGB Fine, or, both.
Edit to add, and yes HMRC would confiscate the still, seize any spirit, and generally make life miserable. I refer you to the estimable/excrable programme produced by the Bee Bee Cee in the 1980's called "The Duty Men" where a still was seized by the then Belfast Criminal Investigation Unit of HMCE after a period of covert observation, in which they managed to avoid treading on the toes of (perm any from as many) Green Army/THEM/14 Int/Provos/Stickies/UDA/UVF/Red Hand Commando/The Brownies/The Wood Craft Folk