A TRAVEL firm director who had a coach seized when passengers tried to bring the equivalent of 700,000 cigarettes into the UK has issued a warning to other operators.

Paul Critchley, a director of Mill Hill-based Dreamline Travel, was speaking after finally having the coach returned following the seizure in October.

The £140,000 coach was confiscated by British Customs officials at the French port of Coquelles on October 16 after its passengers were found to have tobacco with a value equivalent to 700,000 cigarettes with them.

The passengers, friends from a bingo club in Greater Manchester, hired the coach to take them shopping in Adinkerke, Belgium.

Mr Critchley, 43, was initially told he would have to pay £21,000 - half of the unpaid duty on the tobacco - to get the coach back, but had the coach returned yesterday after getting solicitors involved.

The seizure cost Mr Critchley close to £5,000 in lost revenue.

He has now warned coach operators to protect their vehicles by disclosing passengers' names, enabling customs to carry out spot checks on frequent travellers, rather than seize coaches.

He said: "Not a lot of coach operators know but customs expect you to have a list when you go across the channel with each passenger's name and date of birth on.

"When you reach the port this can be faxed off to customs and they can check against their records how often a person is travelling.

"If a person is a regular traveller and they suspect them of smuggling they can stop them on the way back. This is supposed to guarantee that the coach does not get seized.

"I want all coach operators to know this so they don't have to go through what we did. We lost a lot of money, around £5,000 because we lost 25 per cent of our fleet for more than two weeks."

A spokesman for HM Customs and Excise, said: "This does not guarantee the coach will not get seized. However, if passengers are manifested in this way then it is more likely the coach will not get seized. It is the passengers we are more interested in.

"It allows us to see who is travelling because the coach driver may not be aware that a potential smuggler could be making trips with a number of different coach firms."

Last month the EU announced it was to take Britain to court for being too tough on shoppers who bring back cut price alcohol and tobacco from across the channel.

Currently there are strict limits on certain types of tobacco and beers wines and spirits. Anyone bringing in more must prove that the goods are for personal consumption.