Present Participle

1 the fraud involving tobacco......................................................................................................................

2 fraud concerning agricultural products...................................................................................................

3 frauds affecting the Community...............................................................................................................

4 the case related to the Transit System.....................................................................................................

5 to avoid payment of customs duty by fraudulently exploiting the Transit System.................................

6 to transport goods without repeatedly having to pay and reclaim customs duty.........................................

7 after proving that the goods reached their destination.................................................................................

i Translate the following sentences into Russian paying attention to the Absolute Participle Construction, as in the example:

Customs offences receive the most frequent mention, with several reports dwelling on such frauds................

Чаще всего упоминаются преступления, связанные с таможней, о таком мошенничестве говорят несколько сообщений.............................................................................................................................

Note: The Absolute Participle Construction часто употребляется с предлогом with и переводится с помощью союза причем или как отдельное предложение.

1 Customs offences receive the most frequent mention, with several reports dwelling on frauds affecting the Community................................................................................................................................................................

2 Customs offences are most frequent with several reports describing them in detail.......................................

3 Pilferage offences are very frequent, with losses exceeding 1 bn dollars........................................................

4 Frauds are growing with organised criminals increasingly a payment of customs duty.................................

m Translate the following sentences into Russian paying attention to the Nominative with the Infinitive Construction, as in the example:

Goods are thought to have been consumed within a member state country. Полагают, что товар был потреблен внутри страны – члена Союза........................................................................................................

Note: 1. The Nominative with the Infinitive Construction употребляется со следующими глаголами: to be thought, to be expected, to be proved, to be considered, to be heard, to be said и др.

2. The Perfect Infinitive (как в примере) в конструкции обозначает свершившееся действие, the Simple Infinitive – настоящее или будущее действие.

1 Goods are thought to be consumed within a member state country.................................................................

2 Duties are expected to have been paid..............................................................................................................

3 The guarantee is said to have been enforced....................................................................................................

4 They were expected to relinquish the consignor from responsibility...............................................................

5 The country was expected to be designated as the final destination................................................................

§ Suggested activities

n Find the answers in the text and write them-down:

1 Is fraud limited to any definite country?..........................................................................................................

2 What goods does fraud involve?......................................................................................................................

3 What is a «T1 Form»?......................................................................................................................................

4 In what cases are goods classified as Community Transit goods?................................................................

5 What is the procedure of the European Community's Transit System?...........................................................

o Agree or disagree:

1 The European Community's Transit System is very easy to under stand.

2 Fraud is called both economic and financial crime in the text.

3 Any economic crime is financial crime too.

Text 2

Criminals abuse the system by pretending to be legitimate consignors wishing to ship goods through the EU customs area to a consignee outside the EU. The consignor asks the freight forwarder to put up a guarantee to cover any customs duty. The goods arrive at a port of entry and customs are told these are Community Transit goods destined for a consignee outside the EC customs area. The goods are then transported. It is common for a cargo trailer to be towed by a chain of different hauliers and it is this part of the system that is open to abuse. Before the goods leave the EU customs area they are diverted and sold.

The most common method adopted by criminals is to ensure a driver is part of the chain of hauliers. The driver deliberately delays reporting the loss of the cargo. If a freight forwarder makes inquiries the driver might falsely say that he has been delayed because of mechanical problems. Once customs officials at the port of entry become aware of the situation they enforce the guarantee and the freight forwarder has then effectively to pay the customs duty for the fraudulent consignor. The freight forwarder might then claim on his insurance which, in turn, will result in higher premiums or refusal of future cover.

These are variations of this fraud. The freight forwarder may be part of the scheme so that when customs try to enforce the guarantee they find it worthless. Alternatively, a customs official is corrupted with bribes to issue fraudulently the T1 document or criminals may use a counterfeit stamp.

The last two methods are designed to mislead the customs officials at port of entry into believing the goods have left the EU. Criminals, in almost the same way, abuse the Transportes Internationale Routiers (TIR) system. The system is regulated by the International Road Transport Union. But, unlike the EU and EFTA, the TIR system encompasses 57 members. Many countries are «emerging democracies» and their lack of stability can encourage fraud.

This kind of fraud can be illustrated by the following example:

· March 1998: a consignor wants to ship cigarettes from Poland to Spain. At the Polish-German border the carrier contracted by the consignor asks the freight forwarder to issue a T1 document. Because of the sensitivity of the goods, the freight forwarder issues a T1 document for one container and decides to wait until the goods arc received by the buyer before issuing more T1 documents.

· April 1998: the first T1 document is returned with customs stamps and signatures. The freight forwarder then issues another T1 document for a second container.

· May-October 1998: As the earlier shipments were uneventful the freight forwarder issues T1 documents for 11 containers.

· January 1999: the freight forwarder is notified that the customs stamps on the T1 documents were forged and he is liable for duties and taxes because the goods are not proved to have left Germany. If the freight forwarder had been informed earlier, he would not have issued the subsequent T1 documents.

§ Vocabulary notes

§ Words and Grammar

a Write down what parts of speech the words in italics are and translate the sentences into Russian:

1 Criminals abuse this system. (verb) Преступники нарушают эту систему.....................................

2 The system is open to abuse here...............................................................................................................

3 These abuses are very frequent..................................................................................................................

4 They put up a guarantee to cover any customs duty..................................................................................

5 It may result in refusal of future cover........................................................................................................

6 The driver deliberately delays reporting the loss of the cargo....................................................................

7 He says a mechanical problem delays him..................................................................................................

8 They may use a counterfeit stamp. .............................................................................................................

9 They may counterfeit a stamp.....................................................................................................................

b Write down the following abbreviations in full or the abbreviations themselves: