Tax

The defendant Revenue and Customs Commissioners had revoked the claimant company’s registration as an owner of duty-suspended goods, pursuant to the Warehousekeepers and Owners of Warehoused Goods Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/1278). The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, considered the refusal of the claimant’s application for judicial review in which it had sought interim relief pending the determination of its appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber). In dismissing the claimant’s appeal, the court held that it was not entitled to intervene to grant interim relief where the registration of a trader in duty-suspended goods was revoked simply on the basis that there was a pending appeal with a realistic chance of success. In the present case, there was no basis whatever for an argument that the Revenue’s decision had amounted to an abuse of power, or that it had been improper or taken in bad faith.