Friends of mine decided to take a couple of extra packets of cigarettes out of Gibraltar; they got stopped, the cigarettes were found and they were taken in for further questioning. Unable to produce all the necessary documentation (Driving licence, Ficha technical, Permiso de circulacion, insurance) the car was confiscated and they were told to make an appointment with the Aduana in Algeciras. It was late Thursday night, Friday was a fiesta day, and the office is not open at the weekend. On Monday, after producing all the necessary documentation, they were issued with two bits of paper. The first was a fine of 601 euros, the second the paper to release the car. All went Ok and they are now back home much wiser.

You don't say whether the fine was for the extra cigarettes or just for not producing the correct paperwork.

I'm surprised that they would be daft enough to enter a foreign country without even a driving licence in their pocket. It's a wonder they weren't locked up for the weekend.

We were stopped at Gib and had the necessary papers but then they went through the shopping. We were told we could only take one item of each -e.g 1 tin beans - 1 tin tuna - 1 packet of lamb shanks etc each. We protested and said this was not right as we had been through many many times and the only restriction was the amount of money we had spent on them. (excluding fags and booze). She was quite adamant and said she would fine us 10 euros each so we just paid it and went on our way - seething. We did talk amongst ourselves (3 of us) as to know what to do but decided if she wanted to get stroppy she would find a way of keeping us there so just tipped up.
By the way she put the money in her pocket and smiled at us as she did it. :curse:

Reading the OP one can presume it was the Spanish Police who did the fining so they were technically returning to their own country not going into a foreign one without documentation.

I have never heard of this before. That is ridiculous. Food isn´t tax free so why should you only be allowed one of each. I think she was on the fiddle and once you got back over the border I would have reported her.

As my family have just moved to banus area they thought they could do their shopping once a month in Gib. Does anyone know the legal limit of shopping you can bring over the border. Cigs, booze, and food.

Excuse my ignorance, but why shop in Gib?

M&S

VAT 69 at 3.60 GBP for litre bottle

It is the same as entry into the EU from a non EU country.

Details here http://tinyurl.com/6g9bcw

So by the time you have paid the duty on cigs and booze, it cannot be worth it!
Because of course, everyone declares it!

A few years ago I was entering Spain from Gib with some rather large engine parts that needed work that was not available in Gib.
I declared them and was told I had to pay temporary import duty that would be refunded when the parts were re-exported.
No problem I had done this before
However this time whilst going through the procedure the Guardia also caught a car smuggling thousands of cigarettes. I was made to wait whilst the smugglers were dealt with, cautioned confiscations etc. this took about an hour and a half.
Only when this procedure was finished and the smugglers were allowed on their way did the Guardia then return to finish my paperwork.

So the moral of the story is if you want to get through the frontier quickly SMUGGLE

Can´t see anything about a tin of baked beans!!

True but did you spot the 100g limit on tea?

You can forget the 160 packs of Typhoo!

thats as good as a nod and a wink.she will take a bung.boy are you lot slow