POLICE TEST MOTORIST'S FUEL

Police are making sure islanders aren't dodging fuel tax today.

They are pulling over motorists to make sure they have got car diesel and not
boat diesel in their tanks.

Boat diesel isn't as expensive and its dyed a different colour so officers
can tell the difference.

From Island FM.

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This is fairly common in the UK and elsewhere. Fuel is cheaper here (just!!) than the UK so it may not be a problem.

Is this a good use of police resources?

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imo no they are not tax collectors and should be out catching criminalas . isn,t that what they are paid to do.

Depends, are they checking just the fuel or are they checking DL, Ins, road worthiness as well which is what they do on a standard road check anyway so they are just adding another component to what they normally do.
If that is the case then it is worth their time because Police are there to do more than catch criminals.
It will also be interesting to see if they are mainly targeting trucks and lorries because some of the people they will use are police mechanics who never go out "catching criminals".

Thistle wrote:imo no they are not tax collectors and should be out catching criminalas . isn,t that what they are paid to do.

It is a criminal offence to use Boat Fuel in a car or truck on the road, are you saying the police should ignor these criminals.

Have to say I'm sure the police must have more important things to do!

Like making sure people don't smoke????? that surely is worth policing!!!!!!! (I'm a non smoker who still believes in free will) and while I am on the 'policing' thing - I still see so many cars with the driver using non hands free mobiles - now that in my humble opinion, does need policing - it is frankly scary to see someone coming towards you chatting away and not even registering that you are on the road! How many of those cases have we seen on the paper lately????

Car / van / lorry drivers using boat fuel is no different to tax evasion, benefit fraud, or any other crime that causes a loss to the public purse.

The testing was done by Customs. The Police were only there to stop the vehicles.

What a load of poppycock. Why don't they start random checks for drugs, weapons ("Do you have a license for that plumbers wrench?"), pornography, fluffy dice that obscure the driver's view, tire pressures (under-inflated can add to the greenhouse effect!) and a host of other things? No, they put the emphasis (and police manpower which could be used for more important things) on their beloved tax. Not so long ago a story like that would be from the old Soviet bloc. Unfortunately, not any more.

Deebay wrote:What a load of poppycock. Why don't they start random checks for drugs, weapons ("Do you have a license for that plumbers wrench?"), pornography, fluffy dice that obscure the driver's view, tire pressures (under-inflated can add to the greenhouse effect!) and a host of other things? No, they put the emphasis (and police manpower which could be used for more important things) on their beloved tax. Not so long ago a story like that would be from the old Soviet bloc. Unfortunately, not any more.

Oh dear, you sound like a person who might have a guilty concience. :roll:

So Deebay, all those war taxes throughout the centuries were never checked and were in fact a communist plot?

Don't you think they're tired of being under that bed?

If we insist on taxing consumption then it needs policing.

Don't worry though, when you have newspapers like the Wall St Journal advocating criminal tax evasion as 'a right' (after UBS releases undeclared account names - a fraction of the billions, if not trillions hidden in Switzerland) and to exercise your 'right' to evade taxes as protest against the 'communist' policies of Pres Obama, then you know you're in good company.

You see, when the State doesn't intervene Dozens of trillions of dollars gets stolen from the poor to give to the rich.

So daft as it is, we have to have coppers checking what we do because of the anti State leaders of the 'free' world, folk like Murdoch, who rob us of billions in developmental funds.

Blame them for these intrusions.

"You see, when the State doesn't intervene Dozens of trillions of dollars gets stolen from the poor to give to the rich."

Correction : When the state intervenes trillions of dollars get stolen from the poor and the rich. With taxation the poor always suffer more than the rich.

wayside wrote:

Thistle wrote:imo no they are not tax collectors and should be out catching criminalas . isn,t that what they are paid to do.

It is a criminal offence to use Boat Fuel in a car or truck on the road, are you saying the police should ignor these criminals.

maybe if the tax on fuel wasnt so high peeps wouldnt even consider becoming a so called criminal.there are worse things happening out there than a little bit of diesel being used illegally.

Thistle wrote:

wayside wrote:

Thistle wrote:imo no they are not tax collectors and should be out catching criminalas . isn,t that what they are paid to do.

It is a criminal offence to use Boat Fuel in a car or truck on the road, are you saying the police should ignor these criminals.

maybe if the tax on fuel wasnt so high peeps wouldnt even consider becoming a so called criminal.there are worse things happening out there than a little bit of diesel being used illegally.

There's also a lot worse going on than someone smoking a bit of dope, or going 10mph over the limit, or having a slash in a hedge on the way home. Doesn't stop the rozzers for nicking people for it though..............

Deebay wrote:"You see, when the State doesn't intervene Dozens of trillions of dollars gets stolen from the poor to give to the rich."

Correction : When the state intervenes trillions of dollars get stolen from the poor and the rich. With taxation the poor always suffer more than the rich.

i'm not arguing.

except that taxation is needed to provide the framework to enable the maximum possible amount of people to actively use the market and generate wealth. no taxes, no schools, no local expertise, subjugation by a richer nation, corruption. That's why the US/UK model is going backwards. So it's in everyone's interest to be compliant.

more cooperation, less competition -

So, in a nutshell a necessary evil?






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Checking that the population is law abiding is not an evil in itself. The implementation mustn't be one that promotes fear. Deebay sees that as a 'Soviet' situation, but it's generic totalitarianism, but the drift is got.

It only needs a now-and-then randomised approach, and it's probably mainly for stats on how much biz is occurring. The tax loss is only an issue over time, considering the amounts involved, but it only needs a pocket of permanent offenders - distributing the service to a carefully chosen few - to make it worthwhile to attempt to nip it in the bud.

There can't be that much serious demand for it. Just bloody mindedness.

Dell wrote:Police are making sure islanders aren't dodging fuel tax today.

They are pulling over motorists to make sure they have got car diesel and not
boat diesel in their tanks.

Boat diesel isn't as expensive and its dyed a different colour so officers
can tell the difference.

From Island FM.

#################################################


This is fairly common in the UK and elsewhere. Fuel is cheaper here (just!!) than the UK so it may not be a problem.

Is this a good use of police resources?

.

So after all that did we establish if it was the police of customs that were making sure motorists didn't dodge the tax.

They were working together as already suggested.






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