After two years, Hoverspeed gets redress
21 January 2006
Revenue & Customs has agreed to pay Hoverspeed almost £2m to settle a long-running legal dispute over its officers' alleged "heavy-handed" searches of booze cruise customers. The cross-Channel operator, which closed its Dover-Calais route last year, originally filed a claim for £50m damages in 2004, arguing that over-zealous searches were putting off day trippers and hitting its profits. Customs have agreed to pay Sea Containers, Hoverspeed's parent firm, £950,000 plus £850,000 "reasonable costs", adding that the payments were not an admission of liability.